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SHAKESPEARE'S 



COMEDY OF THE 



Merry Wives of Windsor 



EDITED, WITH NOTES 

BY 

WILLIAM J. ROLFE, Litt.D. 

FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, 
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK . : . CINCINNATI • : • CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



1 APR S IBUb 

i;Li4S» <^ AXc. IMoi 
COPY S. 






Copyright, 1882 and 1898, by 
HARPER & BROTHERS. 

Copyright, 1905, by 
WILLIAM J. ROLFE. 



MERRY WIVES. 
W. P. I 



( '!? 



PREFATORY NOTE 

This play, originally edited by me in 1882, is now 
thoroughly revised on the same general plan as the 
earlier volumes in the new series. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTJIODUCTION TO THE MeRRY WiVES OF WINDSOR . . 9 

The History of the Play 9 

The Sources of the Plot 13 

General Comments on the Play 14 

Merry Wives of Windsor 21 

Act I 23 

Act II 46 

Act III . . .71 

Act IV 100 

ActV 124 

Notes 141 

Appendix 

Comments on Some of the Characters .... 209 

The Time-Analysis of the Play 215 

List of Characters in the Play 216 

Index of Words and Phrases explained • • . 219 










im 



.>Jf^^ 



'"lifer 






Anne Page and Slender 
(" I pray you, sir, walk in.") 




Part of Windsor Castle 

INTRODUCTION TO THE MERRY WIVES 
OF WINDSOR 



The History of the Play 

The earliest edition of The Merry Wives was a quarto 
printed in 1602, with the following title-page : — 

" A I Most pleasaunt and | excellent conceited Co- 
I medie, of Syr John Falstaffe, and the | merrie Wiues 
of Windsor. \ Entermixed with sundrie | variable and 
pleasing humors of Syr Hugh \ the Welch Knight, 
Justice Shallow^ and his | wise Cousin M. Slender. \ 
With the swaggering vaine of Auncient | Pistoll, and 
Corporall Nym. \ By William Shakespeare. \ As it hath 

9 



lo Merry Wives of Windsor 

bene diuers times Acted by the right Honorable | my 
Lord Chamberlaines servants Both before her | Mai- 
estie, and else-where. | London | Printed by T. C. for 
Arthur lohnson ; and are to be sold at | his shop in 
Powles Churchyard, at the signe of the | Flower de 
Leuse and the Crowne. | 1602." 

A second quarto was published in 16 19. These edi- 
tions appear to be a pirated version of the play as first 
written, probably in 1599. 

This early sketch was afterward revised and enlarged 
to about twice the original length ; and this is the form 
in which it appears in the folio of 1623. Internal evi- 
dence shows that this revision was made after James 
came to the throne, and probably about 1605. In i. i. 
no "king" is substituted for the "council" of the 
quarto. " These knights will hack," in ii. i. 50, is sup- 
posed to allude to the 237 knights created by James in 
1603. "When the court lay at Windsor," in ii. 2. 62, 
may refer to July, 1603 ; the court was usually held at 
Greenwich in the winter. The mention of " coach after 
coach," in ii. 2. 66, is not likely to have been made 
much before coaches came into general use, which, 
according to Howe's Continuation of Stowe's Chronicle, 
was in 1605. "Outrun on Cotsall," i. i. 89, appears 
to allude to the reviving of the Cotswold games about 
1603. 

The entry in the Accounts of the Revels, according to 
which the play was acted at Whitehall on Sunday, Nov. 
4, 1604, is now known to be a forgery, but there is 



Introduction ii 

satisfactory evidence that it was based on correct in- 
formation. It is probable that the revision of the play 
was made for a court performance at Windsor. "The 
fairy scene at the close, originally shght, gay, and sa- 
tirical, such as the good folks of Windsor might have 
invented when inspired by a spirit of frolic-mischief, is 
discarded, in order to substitute a higher tone of fairy 
poetry, graceful and delicate, fanciful and grotesque. 
It seems probable that the author, when his play was 
about to be reproduced before the court, after some 
celebration of the Order of the Garter, rejected his 
former verses, in order to enrich his piece with a scene 
imitating and rivalling the high fanciful elegance of 
the masques, which had then become popular, and in 
which Ben Jonson was then exhibiting an exuberance 
of refined and original and delicate fancy, which could 
never have been anticipated from the stern satire, the 
coarse humour, and the learned imitations of his regular 
drama." 

Tradition ascribes the origin of the play to Queen 
Elizabeth. Rowe, in the life of Shakespeare prefixed 
to his edition, first published in 1709, says that Eliza- 
beth " was so well pleased with that admirable charac- 
ter of Falstaff in the two parts of Henry IV. that she 
commanded him to continue it for one play more, and 
to show Falstaff in love." The same story had been 
given by John Dennis, in 1702 (in the preface to The 
Comical Gallant, a comedy founded on the Merry 
Wives), with unimportant variations, indicating that he 



12 Merry Wives of Windsor 

derived his information from some other source. He 
adds that the queen was so eager to see the play acted 
" that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen 
days, and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very 
well pleased at the representation." The anecdote was 
repeated by Gildon in 1710, and was accepted without 
controversy by Pope, Theobald, and other of the earlier 
editors. 

Some of the more recent critics have been more 
sceptical; but they are ably answered by Verplanck 
thus : " Yet, as Rowe relates his anecdote on the same 
authority with that on which most of the generally re- 
ceived facts of the poet's history are known, acknowl- 
edging his obUgations to Betterton 'for the most 
considerable passages ' of the biography ; as Betterton 
was then seventy-four years of age, and thus might have 
received the story directly from contemporary authority ; 
as Gildon was Betterton's friend and biographer, and 
as Dennis (a learned acute man, of a most uninventive 
and matter-of-fact mind) told his story seven or eight 
years before, 'with a difference,' yet without contradic- 
tion, so as to denote another and an independent source 
of evidence; as Pope, the rancorous enemy of poor 
Dennis, whom he and his contemporary wits have 
* damned to everlasting fame,' received the traditions 
without hesitation ; we have certainly, in the entire 
absence of any external or internal evidence to the con- 
trary, as good a proof as any such insulated piece of 
literary history could well require or receive, although 



Introduction 13 

it may not amount to such evidence as might be de- 
manded to estabhsh some contested point of rehgious 
or legal or political opinion." 

The date that I have assigned to the play (1599) 
places it between 2 Henry IV. and Henry V. That it 
was written after 2 Henry IV. is evident from the fact 
that Falstaff in that play was originally called Old- 
castle, but not in this one. It has been urged that it 
must have been produced before Henry V. in which 
Falstaff's death is recorded; but it is not necessary to 
regard the Merry Wives as an integral part of the his- 
torical trilogy. If it was written at the request of 
Elizabeth, the dramatist would not have hesitated to 
resuscitate the knight for her gratification. It is more 
probable, however, that if, as Rowe asserts, it was her 
enjoyment of the two parts of Henry IV. that led her 
to " command " him to write a play showing Falstaff 
in love, and if she insisted on its being finished in a 
fortnight, the dramatist would have postponed the com- 
pletion of the trilogy in order to do it. 

The Sources of the Plot 

Among the sources from which it has been supposed 
that Shakespeare may have got some hints for the plot 
of the Merry Wives are two tales in Straparola's Le 
Tredici Piacevoli Notte, and a modified version of one 
of these, under the title of " The Lovers of Pisa " in 
Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatorie^ 1590 I the tale of 
Bucciolp and Pietro Paulo in the Pecorom of Giovanni 



14 Merry Wives of Windsor 

Fiorentino ; and "The Fishwife's Tale of Brainford " 
from Westward for Smelts. This last, however, was 
probably not published till 1620, though Malone refers 
to an edition of 1603. 

General Comments on the Play 

The critics have wasted much ink and ingenuity in 
trying to decide at what point in the career of Falstaff 
these Windsor adventures belong ; but, as already sug- 
gested, we may consider the comedy as having a certain 
independence of the histories and not to be brought 
into chronological relations to them. As White re- 
marks, " Shakespeare was not writing biography, even 
the biography of his own characters. He was a poet, 
but he wrote as a playwright ; and the only consistency 
to which he held himself, or can be held by others, is 
the consistency of dramatic interest." 

If we are to make a connected and consistent biog- 
raphy of Sir John out of the four plays, there is no 
alternative but to adopt the hypothesis of those critics 
who put the Windsor exploits before all the other experi- 
ences of the knight recorded by Shakespeare. Eliza- 
beth may have induced the poet to write a play "with 
Sir John in it " in the role she proposed, but after com- 
paring the new Sir John with the old we are constrained 
to say " this is not the man." At some uncertain period 
before we meet him in Eastcheap he may indeed have 
been capable of such fatuity, but he was too old a bird 
then to be caught with the chaff of the merry wives. 



Introduction 15 

Verplanck (whose admirable criticisms of Shakespeare 
are now unfortunately out of print) remarks : " Assum- 
ing that Shakespeare, either in obedience to the com- 
mand of his political sovereign — a lady somewhat 
tyrannical, and not a little fantastical, and yet a woman 
of genius and of letters, whose suggestions the most 
republican poet might be proud to receive — or to 
please that other many-headed sovereign, the public, to 
whom the poet owed a still truer allegiance — after 
having exhausted the last days of Falstaff in the his- 
torical dramas, had revived him for a new display of 
his character, and surrounded him with his former com- 
panions, it is quite incredible that he should have done 
so without some regard to the incidents, adventures, 
and characteristics that he alone had bestowed upon 
each one of them. Had these personages been like the 
cunning slave, the parasite, and the bully, of the Latin 
stage, or like the Scapins and Sganarelles of the old 
French comedy (characters common to every dramatic 
author), he would not have cared for any such connec- 
tion. But these were the children of his own fancy, 
and they had lived in a world of his own creation ; 
so that, though like Cervantes in similar circumstances 
he might fall into an occasional forgetful contradiction 
of his own story, it was every way improbable that he 
should not have had in his mind some plan of congru- 
ous invention. Now, he had already made his readers 
and audience familiar with the latter part of Falstaff 's 
career. When he reproduced him, therefore, it was 



1 6 Merry Wives of Windsor 

natural that he should return to a somewhat earlier 
period of his life, especially when he was to represent 
him as a lover. Who, indeed, does not assent to John- 
son's remarks on Falstaff's appearance in this char- 
acter ? He says : — 

' No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas 
of another. Shakespeare knew what the queen seems 
not to have known, that by any real passion of tender- 
ness, the selfish craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy 
luxury of Falstaff must have suffered so much abate- 
ment that little of his former cast could have remained. 
Falstaff could not love but by ceasing to be Falstaff. 
He could only counterfeit love. Thus the poet ap- 
proached as near as he could to the work enjoined him ; 
yet having, perhaps, in the former plays completed his 
own ideas, he seems not to have been able to give 
Falstaff all his former power of entertainment.' 

Every one of Falstaff 's acquaintances must feel his 
amusement at Windsor dashed with constant vexation 
at seeing the hero of the Boar's Head ' made an ass 
of,' hunted and worried, and at last obliged to veil his 
triumphant wit even to 'the Welch flannel.' But we 
also feel that this same pleasant 'villainous misleader 
of youth,' that 'grey iniquity' delighting to 'take his 
ease in his own inn,' could not easily have been made 
the sport and butt even of ladies as sprightly and mali- 
cious as those of Windsor. It is quite clear that in the 
days of Mrs. Hostess Quickly, he had rid himself of all 
personal vanity that could lead him into any such self- 



Introduction 



17 



delusions. Yet, as the vanity of being thought accept- 
able to the other sex is one of the last that men get rid 
of, the author would naturally be led to paint Falstaff , 
in the perilous adventures to which he had destined 
him, as being still of an age (however ridiculous his 
courtship would seem to Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford) to 
be yet liable to the delusions of personal vanity, and 
exposed to its attendant mortifications. He is of 
course made to take his last lesson of experience in 
that matter, before settling down into the lazy luxury 
of the Boar's Head. He is accordingly, though sub- 
stantially the same character, made more of a viva- 
cious, dissolute old boy, and less of the sagacious 
Epicurean wit, than he appears in Henry IV. We 
have, then, only to imagine an indefinite interval of 
two or three years, during which Pistol and Bardolph 
return to their old service, and Mrs. Quickly removes 
from the quiet shades of Windsor to the more con- 
genial atmosphere of a London tavern, and nothing is 
wanted to make the whole consistent and probable." 

Hartley Coleridge, in his Essays and Marginalia^ 
remarks : " That Queen Bess should have desired to 
see Falstaff making love proves her to have been, as 
she was, a gross-minded old baggage. Shakespeare 
has evaded the difiiculty with great skill. He knew 
that Falstafc could not be in love, and has mixed 
but a little, a very little, pruritus with his fortune- 
hunting courtship. But the Falstaff of the Merry 
Wives is not the Falstaff of Henry IV. It is a big- 

MERRY WIVES — 2 



1 8 Merry Wives of Windsor 

bellied impostor, assuming his name and style, or, 
at best, it is FalstafiE in dotage. The Mrs. Quickly 
of Windsor is not mine hostess of the Boar's Head ; 
but she is a very pleasant, busy, good-natured, un- 
principled old woman, whom it is impossible to be 
angry with. Shallow should not have left his seat 
in Gloucestershire and his magisterial duties. Ford's 
jealousy is of too serious a complexion for the rest 
of the play. The merry wives are a delightful pair. 
Methinks I see them, with their comely, middle-aged 
visages, their dainty white ruffs and toys, their half- 
witch-like conic hats, their full farthingales, their 
neat though not over-slim waists, their housewifely 
keys, their girdles, their sly laughing looks, their apple- 
red cheeks, their brows the lines whereon look more 
like the work of mirth than years. And sweet Anne 
Page — she is a pretty little creature whom one would 
like to take on one's knee." It is noteworthy that 
Maurice Morgann, in his essay on Falstaff, avoids the 
Merry Wives. 

Whether Shakespeare found his plot in Italian or 
other literature, the play is thoroughly English. " It 
' smells April and May,' like Fenton. It has the 
bright healthy country air all through it: Windsor 
Park with its elms, the glad light-green of its beeches, 
its ferns, and deer. There is coursing and hawking, 
Datchet Mead, and the silver Thames, and though not 

* The white feet of laughing girls 
Whose sires have marched to Rome,' 



Introduction 



19 



yet those of stout, bare-legged, bare-armed English 
wenches plying their washing-trade. There 's a healthy 
moral as well : ' Wives may be merry and yet honest 
too.' The lewd court hanger-on, whose wit always 
mastered men, is outwitted and routed by Windsor 
wives " (Furnivall). 

Charles Cowden-Clarke, in similar vein, remarks : 
" The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of those delight- 
fully happy plays of Shakespeare, beaming with sun- 
shine and good-humour, that makes one feel the better, 
the lighter, and the happier for having seen or read it. 
It has a superadded charm, too, from the scene being 
purely English ; and we all know how rare and how 
precious English sunshine is, both literally and meta- 
phorically. The Merry Wives may be designated the 
' sunshine ' of domestic life, as the As Yoit Like It is 
the ' sunshine ' of romantic life. The out-door character 
that pervades both plays gives to them their tone of 
buoyancy and enjoyment, and true holiday feeling. We 
have the meeting of Shallow and Slender and Page in 
the streets of W^indsor, who saunter on, chatting of the 
' fallow greyhound,' and of his being ' outrun on Cot- 
sail ' ; and, still strolling on, they propose the match 
between Slender and 'sweet Anne Page.' Then Anne 
brings wine out of doors to them ; though her father, 
with the genuine feeling of old English hospitality, 
presses them to come into his house, and enjoy it with 
a 'hot venison pasty to dinner.' And she afterwards 
comes out into the garden to bid Master Slender to 



20 Merry Wives of Windsor 

table, where, we may imagine, he has been lounging 
about, in the hope of the fresh air relieving his sheep- 
ish embarrassment. When Doctor Caius bids his ser- 
vant bring him his rapier, he answers, ' 'T is ready, sir, 
here in the porch,' conveying the idea of a room lead- 
ing at once into the open air — such a room as used to 
be called ' a summer parlour.' Then we hear of Anne 
Page being at a ' farm-house a-feasting ' ; and we have 
Mrs. Page leading her little boy Wilham to school ; 
and Sir Hugh Evans sees people coming ' from Frog- 
more over the stile this way ' ; and we find that Master 
Ford ' is this morning gone a-birding.' Even the very 
headings to the scenes breathe of dear, lovely English 
scenery — ' Windsor Park ' — 'A field near Frogmore.' 
They talk, too, of Datchet Lane ; and Sir John Falstaff 
is ' slighted into the river.' And, with this, come 
thronging visions of the ' silver Thames,' and some of 
those exquisite leafy nooks on its banks, with the caw- 
ing of rooks ; and its little islands, crowned with the 
dark and glossy-leaved alder ; and barges lapsing on its 
tranquil tide. To crown all, the story winds up with a 
plot to meet in Windsor Park at midnight, to trick the 
fat knight beneath ' Heme's oak.' The whole play, 
indeed, is, as it were, a village, or even a homestead 
pastoral." 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR 



DRAMATIS PERSONS 

Sir John Falstaff. 
Fenton, a gentleman. 
Shallow, a country justice. 
Slender, a cousin to Shallow. 

p ' [• two gentlemen dwelling at Windsor. 

William Page, a boy. son to Page. 

Sir Hugh Evans, a Welsh parson. 

Doctor Caius, a French physician. 

Host of the Garter Inn. 

Bardolph, ~| 

Pistol, }- sharpers attending on Falstaff. 

Nym, J 

Robin, page to Falstaff. 

Simple, servant to Slender. 

Rugby, servant to Doctor Caius. 

Mistress Ford. 

Mistress Page. 

Anne Page, her daughter. 

Mistress Quickly, servant to Doctor Caius. 

Servants to Page, Ford, etc. 

Scene : Windsor and the neighbourhood. 




Winchester Tower, Windsor Castle 



ACT I 

Scene I. Windsor. Before Page's House 

Enter Justice Shallow, Slender, and Sir Hugh 

Evans 

Shallow. Sir . Hugh, persuade me not ; I will 
make a Star-chamber matter of it. If he were 
twenty Sir John Falstaffs, he shall not abuse Robert 
Shallow, esquire. 

Slender. In the county of Gloucester, justice of 
peace and coram. 

23 



24 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

Shallow. Ay, cousin Slender, and custalorum. 

Slender. Ay, and ratolorum too ; and a gentleman 
born, master parson, who writes himself armigero, 
in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, armi- 
gero. II 

Shallow. Ay, that I do, and have done any time 
these three hundred years. 

Slender. All his successors gone before him hath 
done 't, and all his ancestors that come after him 
may ; they may give the dozen white luces in their 
coat. 

Shallow. It is an old coat. 

Evans. The dozen white louses do become an old 
coat well. It agrees well, passant ; it is a familiar 
beast to man, and signifies love. 21 

Shallow. The luce is the fresh fish ; the salt fish 
is an old coat. 

Slender. I may quarter, coz. 

Shallow. You may, by marrying. 

Evans. It is marring indeed, if he quarter it. 

Shallow. Not a whit. 

Evans. Yes, py'r lady. If he has a quarter of 
your coat, there is but three skirts for yourself, in 
my simple conjectures ; but that is all one. If Sir 
John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto 
you, I am of the church and will be glad to do my 
benevolence to make atonements and compremises 
between you. 34 

Shallow. The council shall hear it ; it is a riot. 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 25 

Evans. It is not meet the council hear a riot ; 
there is no fear of Got in a riot. The council, look 
you, shall desire to hear the fear of Got, and not to 
hear a riot ; take your vizaments in that. 39 

Shallow. Ha ! o' my life, if I were young again, 
the swords should end it. 

Evans. It is petter that friends is the sword, and 
end it ; and there is also another device in my prain, 
which peradventure prings goot discretions with it. 
There is Anne Page, which is daughter to Master 
George Page, which is pretty virginity. 

Slender. Mistress Anne Page ? She has brown 
hair, and speaks small like a woman. 48 

Evans. It is that fery person for all the orld, as 
just as you will desire ; and seven hundred pounds 
of moneys, and gold and silver, is her grandsire upon 
his death's-bed — Got deliver to a joyful resurrec- 
tions ! — give, when she is able to overtake seven- 
teen years old. It were a goot motion if we leave 
our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage 
between Master Abraham and Mistress Anne Page. 

Shallow. Did her grandsire leave her seven hun- 
dred pound ? 58 

Evans. Ay, and her father is make her a petter 
penny. 

Shallow. I know the young gentlewoman ; she 
has good gifts. 

Evans. Seven hundred pounds and possibilities 
is goot gifts. 



26 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

Shallow. Well, let us see honest Master Page. Is 
Falstaff there ? 

Evans. Shall I tell you a lie ? I do despise a liar 
as I do despise one that is false, or as I despise one 
that is not true. The knight, Sir John, is there ; 
and, I peseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I 
will peat the door for Master Page. — \Knocks?\ 
What, hoa ! Got pless your house here ! 72 

Page. [ IVil/un] Who 's there ? 

Enter Page 

Evans. Here is Got's plessing, and your friend, 
and Justice Shallow ; and here young Master Slen- 
der, that peradventures shall tell you another tale, 
if matters grow to your likings. 

Page, I am glad to see your worships well. — I 
thank you for my venison, Master Shallow. 79 

Shallow. Master Page, I am glad to see you ; 
much good do it your good heart ! I wished your 
venison better ; it was ill killed. — How doth good 
Mistress Page ? — and I thank you always with my 
heart, la ! with my heart. 

Page. Sir, I thank you. 

Shallow. Sir, I thank you ; by yea and no, I do. 

Page. I am glad to see you, good Master Slender. 

Slender. How does your fallow greyhound, sir ? 
I heard say he was outrun on Cotsall. 

Page. It could not be judged, sir. 90 

Slender. You '11 not confess, you '11 not confess. 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 27 

Shallow. That he will not. — 'T is your fault, 't is 
your fault ; 't is a good dog. 

Page. A cur, sir. 

Shallow. Sir, he 's a good dog, and a fair dog ; can 
there be more said ? he is good and fair. Is Sir John 
Falstaff here ? 

Page. Sir, he is within ; and I would I could do a 
good'ofHce between you. 

Evans. It is spoke as a Christians ought to 
speak. 101 

Shallow. He hath wronged me, Master Page. 

Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it. 

Shallow. If it be confessed, it is not redressed ; is 
not that so. Master Page ? He hath wronged me, 
indeed he hath ; at a word, he hath, believe me. 
Robert Shallow, esquire, saith he is wronged. 

Page. Here comes Sir John. 

Enter Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym, and 

Pistol 

Falstaff. Now, Master Shallow, you '11 complain 
of me to the king? no 

Shalloiv. Knight, you have beaten my men, killed 
my deer, and broke open my lodge. 

Falstaff. But not kissed your keeper's daughter ? 

Shallow. Tut, a pin ! this shall be answered. 

Falstaff. I will answer it straight ; I have done 
all this. That is now answered. 

Shallow, The council shall know this. 



28 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

Falstaff. 'T were better for you if it were known 
in counsel ; you '11 be laughed at. 

Evans. Pauca verba, Sir John ; goot worts. 120 

Falstaff. Good worts ? good cabbage ! — Slender, I 
broke your head ; what matter have you against me ? 

Slender. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head 
against you, and against your cony-catching rascals, 
Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. They carried me to 
the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards 
picked my pockets. 

Bardolph. You Banbury cheese ! 

Slender. Ay, it is no matter. 

Pistol. How now, Mephostophilus ! 130 

Slender. Ay, it is no matter. 

Nym. Slice, I say ! pauca, pauca ; slice ! that 's 
my humour. 

Slender. Where 's Simple, my man ? — Can you 
tell, cousin ? 

Evans. Peace, I pray you. Now let us under- 
stand. There is three umpires in this matter, as I 
understand : that is, Master Page, fidelicet Master 
Page ; and there is myself, fidelicet myself ; and 
the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host of 
the Garter. 141 

Page. We three, to hear it and end it between 
them. 

Evans. Fery goot ; I will make a prief of it in 
my note-book, and we will afterwards ork upon the 
cause with as great discreetly as we can. 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 29 

Falstaff. Pistol! 

Pistol. He hears with ears. 

Evans. The tevil and his tam ! what phrase is 
this, he hears with ear ? why, it is affectations. 150 

Falstaff. Pistol, did you pick Master Slender's 
purse ? 

Slender. Ay, by these gloves, did he, or I would I 
might never come in mine own great chamber again 
else, of seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Ed- 
ward shovel-boards, that cost me two shillings and 
two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves. 

Falstaff. Is this true. Pistol ? 

Evans. No ; it is false, if it is a pick-purse. 

Pistol. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner ! — Sir John and 
master mine, 160 

I combat challenge of this latten bilbo. — 
Word of denial in thy labras here ! 
Word of denial ! froth and scum, thou liest ! 

Slender. By these gloves, then, 't was he. 

Nym. Be avised, sir, and pass good humours. 
I will say marry trap with you, if you run the nut- 
hook's humour on me ; that is the very note of it. 

Slender. By this hat, then, he in the red face had 
it ; for though I cannot remember what I did when 
you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an 
ass. . 171 

Falstaff. What say you. Scarlet and John ? 

Bardolph. Why, sir, for my part, I say the gentle- 
man had drunk himself out of his five sentences. 



30 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act I 

Evans. It is his five senses ; fie, what the igno- 
rance is ! 

Bardolph. And being fap, sir, was, as they say, 
cashiered ; and so conclusions passed the careers. 

Slender. Ay, you spake in Latin then too ; but 't is 
no matter. I '11 ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, 
but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick. 
If I be drunk, I '11 be drunk with those that have 
the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves. 183 

Evans. So Got udge me, that is a virtuous mind. 

Ealstaff. You hear all these matters denied, gen- 
tlemen ; you hear it. 

Enter K^'^^ Page, with wine; Mistress Yo^t> and 
Mistress Yag-e, following 

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in ; we '11 
drink within. [^Exit Anne Page. 

Slender. O heaven ! this is Mistress Anne Page. 

Page. How now. Mistress Ford ! 190 

Ealstaff. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very 
well met ; by your leave, good mistress. [Kisses her. 

Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome. — Come, 
we have a hot venison pasty to dinner ; come, gentle- 
men, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness. 

[Exeunt all except Shallow^ Slender^ and Evans. 

Slender. I had rather than forty shillings I had 
my Book of Songs and Sonnets here. — 

Enter Simple 

How now. Simple ! where have you been ? I must 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 3 1 

wait on myself, must I ? You have not the Book of 
Riddles about you, have you ? 200 

Simple. Book of Riddles ! why, did you not lend 
it to Alice Shortcake upon All-hallowmas last, a fort- 
night afore Michaelmas ? 

Shallow. Come, coz ; come, coz ; we stay for you. 
A word with you, coz ; marry, this, coz : there is, as 
't were, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by 
Sir Hugh here. Do you understand me ? 

Slender. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable ; if 
it be so, I shall do that that is reason. 

Shallow. Nay, but understand me. 210 

Slender. So I do, sir. 

Evans. Give ear to his motions, Master Slender. 
I will description the matter to you, if you be ca- 
pacity of it. 

Slender. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says. 
I pray you, pardon me ; he 's a justice of peace in 
his country, simple though I stand here. 

Evans. But that is not the question ; the question 
is concerning your marriage. 

Shallow. Ay, there 's the point, sir. 220 

Evans. Marry, is it, the very point of it ; to Mis- 
tress Anne Page. 

Slender. Why, if it be so, I will marry her upon 
any reasonable demands. 

Evans. But can you affection the oman ? Let us 
command to know that of your mouth or of your 
lips ; for divers philosophers hold that the lips is 



32 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

parcel of the mouth. Therefore, precisely, can you 
carry your good will to the maid ? 

Shallow. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love 
her ? 231 

Slender. I hope, sir, I will do as it shall become 
one that would do reason. 

Evans. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies ! you must 
speak possitable, if you can carry her your desires 
towards her. 

Shallow. That you must. Will you, upon good 
dowry, marry her ? 

Slender. I will do a greater thing than that, upon 
your request, cousin, in any reason. 240 

Shallow. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet 
coz ; what I do is to pleasure you, coz. Can you 
love the maid ? 

Sle?ider. I will marry her, sir, at your request ; but 
if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven 
may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we 
are married and have more occasion to know one 
another. I hope, upon familiarity will grow more 
contempt, but if you say, ' Marry her,' I will marry 
her ; that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely. 250 

Evans. It is a fery discretion answer, save the fall 
is in the ort ' dissolutely ' ; the ort is, according to 
our meaning, ' resolutely.' His meaning is goot. 

Shallozv. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. 

Slender. Ay, or else I would I might be hanged, 
la! 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor ^3 

Shallow. Here comes fair Mistress Anne. — 
Re-enter Anne Page 

Would I were young for your sake, Mistress Anne ! 

Anne. The dinner is on the table ; my father de- 
sires your worships' company. 260 

Shallow. I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne. 

Ev4i7is. Od's plessed will ! I will not be absence 
at the grace. \_Exeunt Shallow and Evans. 

Anne. Will 't please your worship to come in, sir ? 

Slender. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily ; I am 
very well. 

Anne. The dinner attends you, sir. 267 

Slender. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. 
- — Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon 
my cousin Shallow. — \_Exit Simple.'] A justice of 
peace sometimes may be beholding to his friend for 
a man, I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my 
mother be dead ; but what though ? yet I live like a 
poor gentleman born. 

Anne. I may not go in without your worship ; 
they will not sit till you come. 

Slender. V faith, I '11 eat nothing ; I thank you as 
much as though I did. 

Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in. 279 

Slender. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I 
bruised my shin the other day with playing at sword 
and dagger with a master of fence — three veneys for 
a dish of stewed prunes — and, by my troth, I cannot 

MERRY WIVES — 3 



34 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act I 

abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your 
dogs bark so ? be there bears i' the town ? 

Anne. I think there are, sir ; I heard them talked of. 

Slender. I love the sport well ; but I shall as soon 
quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid, 
if you see the bear loose, are you not ? 

Anne. Ay, indeed, sir. 290 

Slender. That 's meat and drink to me, now. I 
have seen Sackerson loose twenty times, and have 
taken him by the chain ; but, I warrant you, the 
women have so cried and shrieked at it that it 
passed. But women, indeed, cannot abide 'em ; 
they are very ill-favoured rough things. 

Re-enter Page 

Page. Come, gentle Master Slender, come ; we 
stay for you. 

Slender. I '11 eat nothing, I thank you, sir. 

Page. By cock and pie, you shall not choose, sir ! 
come, come. 301 

Slender. Nay, pray you, lead the way. 

Page. Come on, sir. 

Slender. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first. 

Anne. Not I, sir; pray you, keep on. 

Slender. Truly, I will not go first ; truly, la ! I 
will not do you that wrong. 

Anne. I pray you, sir. 308 

Slender. I '11 rather be unmannerly than trouble- 
some. You do yourself wrong, indeed, la ! \_Exeunt. 



Scene III] Merry Wives of Windsor 35 

Scene II. The Same 
Enter Sir Hugh Evans and Simple 

Evans. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' 
house which is the way ; and there dwells one Mis- 
tress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, 
or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his 
washer, and his wringer. 

Simple. Well, sir. 

Evans. Nay, it is petter yet. — Give her this 
letter, for it is a oman that altogether 's acquaintance 
with Mistress Anne Page ; and the letter is, to desire 
and require her to solicit your master's desires to 
Mistress Anne Page. I pray you, be gone. I will 
make an end of my dinner ; there 's pippins and 
seese to come. . \Exeunt. 

Scene III. A Roojn in the Garter Inn 

Enter Falstaff, Host, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol, and 

Robin 

Falstaff. Mine host of the Garter ! 

Host. What says my bully-rook ? speak scholarly and 
wisely. 

Falstaff. Truly, mine host. I must turn away 
some of my followers. 

Host. Discard, bully Hercules ; cashier. Let 
them wag ; trot, trot. 

Falstaff. I sit at ten pounds a week. 



36 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

Host. Thou 'rt an emperor, Caesar, Keisar, and 
Pheezar. I will entertain Bardolph ; he shall draw, 
he shall tap. Said I well, bully Hector ? 10 

Falstaff. Do so, good mine host. 

Host. I have spoke ; let him follow. — \To Bar- 
dolpJi\ Let me see thee froth and lime. I am at a 
word ; follow. \Exit, 

Falstaff. Bardolph, follow him. A tapster is a 
good trade ; an old cloak makes a new jerkin, a 
withered serving-man a fresh tapster. Go ; adieu. 

Bardolph. It is a life that I have desired. I will 
thrive. 19 

Pistol. O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the 
spigot wield ? \Exit Bardolph. 

Nym. He was gotten in drink ; is not the humour 
conceited ? 

Falstaff. I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder- 
box. His thefts were too open ; his filching was 
like an unskilful singer, he kept not time. 

Nym. The good, humour is to steal at a minim's 
rest. 

Pistol. Convey, the wise it call. Steal ! foh ! a 
fico for the phrase ! 

Falstaff. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels. 30 

Pistol. Why, then, let kibes ensue. 

Falstaff. There is no remedy ; I must cony-catch, 
I must shift. 

Pistol. Young ravens must have food. 

Falstaff. Which of you know Ford of this town ? 



Scene III] Merry Wives of Windsor 37 

Pistol, I ken the wight ; he is of substance good. 

Falstaff. My honest lads, I will tell you what I 
am about. 

Pistol. Two yards, and more. 39 

Falstaff. No quips now, Pistol ! — Indeed, I am 
in the waist two yards about ; but I am now about 
no waste, I am about thrift. — Briefly, I do mean to 
make love to Ford's wife. I spy entertainment in 
her ; she discourses, she carves, she gives the leer 
of invitation. I can construe the action of her fa- 
miliar style ; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, 
to be Englished rightly, is, ' I am Sir John Falstaif's.' 

Pistol. He hath studied her well, and translated 
her ill — out of honesty into English. 49 

Nym. The anchor is deep ; will that humour pass ? 

Falstaff. Now, the report goes she has all the rule 
of her husband's purse ; he hath a legion of angels. 

Pistol. As many devils entertain, and ' To her, 
boy,' say I. 

Nym. The humour rises, it is good ; humour me 
the angels. 

Falstaff. I have writ me here a letter to her ; and 
here another to Page's wife, who even now gave me 
good eyes too, examined my parts with most judi- 
cious oeillades ; sometimes the beam of her view 
gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly. 61 

Pistol. Then did the sun on dunghill shine. 

Nym. I thank thee for that humour. 

Falstaff. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors 



38 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

with such a greedy intention that the appetite of her 
eye did seem to scorch me up Uke a burning-glass ! 
Here 's another letter to her. She bears the purse 
too ; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. 
I will be cheater to them both, and they shall be 
exchequers to me ; they shall be my East and West 
Indies, and I will trade to them both. — Go bear 
thou this letter to Mistress Page ; — and thou this to 
Mistress Ford. We will thrive, lads, we will thrive. 

Pistol. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, 74 

And by my side wear steel ? then, Lucifer take all. 

Nym. I will run no base humour ; here, take the 
humour-letter. I will keep the haviour of reputation. 

Falstaff. [To Robin\ Hold, sirrah, bear you these 
letters tightly ; 
Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores. — 
Rogues, hence, avaunt ! vanish like hailstones, go ! 
Trudge, plod away o' the hoof ! seek shelter, pack I 
Falstaff will learn the humour of the age, — 82 

French thrift, you rogues ; myself and skirted page. 

\Exeuiit Falstaff and Robin. 

Pistol Let vultures gripe thy guts ! for gourd and 
fullam holds, 
And high and low beguiles the rich and poor. 
Tester I '11 have in pouch when thou shalt lack. 
Base Phrygian Turk ! 

Nym. I have operations in my head which be 
humours of revenge. 89 

Pistol. Wilt thou revenge ? 



Scene IV] Merry Wives of Windsor 39 

Nym. By welkin and her star ! 

Pistol. With wit or steel ? 

Nym. With both the humours, I ; 

I will discuss the humour of this love to Page. 
Pistol. And I to Ford shall eke unfold 
How Falstaff, varlet vile, 
His dove will prove, his gold will hold, 
And his soft couch defile. 
Nym. My humour shall not cool. I will incense 
Page to deal with poison ; I will possess him with 
yellowness, for the revolt of mine is dangerous. 
That is my true humour. 100 

Pistol. Thou art the Mars of malecontents. I sec- 
ond thee ; troop on. \_Exeunt. 

Scene IV. A Room in Doctor Caius's House 

Enter Mistress Quickly, Simple, and Rugby 

Quickly. What, John Rugby ! I pray thee, go to 
the casement, and see if you can see my master, 
Master Doctor Caius, coming. If he do, i' faith, 
and find anybody in the house, here will be an old 
abusing of God's patience and the king's English. 
Rugby. I '11 go watch. 6 

Quickly. Go ; and we '11 have a posset for 't soon 
at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. 
— \_Exit Rugby ^ An honest, willing, kind fellow, as 
ever servant shall come in house withal, and, I war- 
rant you, no tell-tale nor no breed-bate. His worst 



40 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

fault is, that he is given to prayer ; he is something 
peevish that way. But nobody but has his fault ; but 
let that pass. — Peter Simple, you say your name is ? 

Simple. Ay, for fault of a better. 

Quickly. And Master Slender 's your master ? 

Simple. Ay, forsooth. 

Quickly. Does he not wear a great round beard, 
like a glover's paring-knife ? 19 

Simple. No, forsooth ; he hath but a little wee 
face, with a little yellow beard, a Cain-coloured 
beard. 

Quickly. A softly-sprighted man, is he not ? 

Simple. Ay, forsooth, but he is as tall a man of his 
hands as any is between this and his head ; he hath 
fought with a warrener. 

Quickly. How say you? — O, I should remember 
him ; does he not hold up his head, as it were, and 
strut in his gait ? 

Simple. Yes, indeed, does he. 30 

Quickly. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse 
fortune ! Tell Master Parson Evans I will do what 
I can for your master. Anne is a good girl, and I 

wish — 

Re-enter Rugby 

Rugby. Out, alas ! here comes my master. \_Exit. 

Quickly. We shall all be shent. — Run in here, 
good young man ; go into this closet : he will not 
stay long. — \Shuts Simple in the closet.^ What, 
John Rugby ! John ! what, John, I say ! — Go, John, 



Scene IV] Meriy Wives of Windsor 41 

go inquire for my master ; I doubt he be not well, 
that he comes not home. 41 

[Singing] Ajtd down, down, adown-a, etc. 

Enter Doctor Caius 

Caius. Vat is you sing ? I do not like dese toys. 
Pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier 
vert, a box, a green-a box ; do intend vat I speak ? 
a green-a box. 

Quickly. Ay, forsooth ; I '11 fetch it you. — \_Aside\ 
I am glad he went not in himself ; if he had found 
the young man, he would have been horn-mad. 49 

Cains. Fe, fe, fe, fe ! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. 
Je m'en vais a la cour — la grande affaire. 

Quickly. Is it this, sir ? 

Caius. Oui ; mette le au mon pocket ; depeche, 
quickly. Vere is dat knave Rugby? 

Quickly. What, John Rugby ! John 1 

Re-enter Rugby 

Rugby. Here, sir ! 

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack 
Rugby. Come, take-a your rapier, and come after 
my heel to the court. 

Rugby. 'T is ready, sir, here in the porch. 60 

Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long. — Od 's me ! 
Qu'ai-j'oublie ! dere is some simples in my closet, 
dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind. 

Quickly. Ay me, he '11 find the young man there, 
and be mad ! 



42 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

Caius. O diable, diable ! vat is in my closet ? — 
Villain ! larron ! — [^Pulling Simple out.l Rugby, my 
rapier ! 

Quickly. Good master, be content. 

Caius. Wherefore shall I be content-a ? ;o 

Quickly. The young man is an honest man. 

Caius. What shall de honest man do in my 
closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in 
my closet. 

Quickly. I beseech you, be not so phlegmatic. 
Hear the truth of it ; he came of an errand to me 
from Parson Hugh. 

Caius. Veil. 

Si7iiple. Ay, forsooth ; to desire her to — 

Quickly. Peace, I pray you. 80 

Caius. Peace-a your tongue. — Speak-a your tale. 

Simple. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your 
maid, to speak a good word to Mistress Anne Page 
for my master in the way of marriage. 

Quickly. This is all, indeed, la ! but I '11 ne'er 
put my finger in the fire, and need not. 

Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you ? — Rugby, bailie me 
some paper. — Tarry you a little-a while. [ Writes. 

Quickly. \Aside to Simple'] I am glad he is so 
quiet ; if he had been throughly moved, you should 
have heard him so loud and so melancholy. But not- 
withstanding, man, I '11 do you your master what 
good I can ; and the very yea and the no is, the 
French doctor, my master, — I may call him my 



Scene IV] Merry Wives of Windsor 43 

master, look you, for I keep his house ; and I wash, 
wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, 
make the beds, and do all myself, — 

Simple. \_Aside to Quickly\ 'T is a great charge 
to come under one body's hand. 99 

Quickly. [Aside to Simple'\ Are you avised o' that ? 
you shall find it a great charge ; and to be up early 
and down late ; — but notwithstanding, — to tell you 
in your ear, — I would have no words of it, — my 
master himself is in love with Mistress Anne Page ; 
but notwithstanding that, I know Anne's mind, — 
that 's neither here nor there. 

Caius. You jack-a-nape, give-a this letter to Sir 
Hugh ; by gar, it is a shallenge : I will cut his troat 
in de park ; and I will teach a scurvy jack-a-nape 
priest to meddle or make. You may be gone ; it is 
not good you tarry here. — By gar, I will cut all his 
two stones ; by gar, he shall not have a stone to 
trow at his dog. [Exit Simple. 

Quickly. Alas, he speaks but for his friend. 114 

Caius. It is no matter-a vor dat ; do not you tell-a 
me dat I shall have Anne Page for myself ? By gar, 
I vill kill de Jack priest ; and I have appointed mine 
host of de Jarteer to measure our weapon. By gar, 
I will myself have Anne Page. 

Quickly. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be 
well. We must give folks leave to prate ; what, the 
good-year ! 122 

Caius. Rugby, come to the court with me. — By 



44 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act i 

gar, if I ha.ve not Anne Page, I shall turn your head 
out of my door. — Follow my heels, Rugby. 

[Exeunt Cains and Rugby. 

Quickly. You shall have An fool's-head of your 
own. No, I know Anne's mind for that ; never a 
woman in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind than 
I do, nor can do more than I do with her, I thank 
heaven. 130 

Fenton. [ Withiii\ Who 's within there ? ho ! 

Quickly. Who 's there, I trow ? Come near the 
house, I pray you. 

Enter Fenton 

Fenton. How now, good woman ! how dost thou ? 

Quickly. The better that it pleases your good 
worship to ask. 

Fenton. What news ? how does pretty Mistress 
Anne ? 

Quickly. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, 
and gentle ; and one that is your friend, I can tell 
you that by the way ; I praise heaven for it. 141 

Fento7i. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou ? shall 
I not lose my suit ? 

Quickly. Troth, sir, all is in his hands above ; but 
notwithstanding. Master Fenton, I '11 be sworn on 
a book, she loves you. — Have not your worship a 
wart above your eye ? 

Fenton. Yes, marry, have I ; what of that ? 

Quickly. Well, thereby hangs a tale. Good faith, 



Scene IV] Merry Wives of Windsor 45 

it is such another Nan ; but, I detest, an honest maid 
as ever broke bread : we had an hour's talk of that 
wart. I shall never laugh but in that maid's com- 
pany ! But indeed she is given too much to alli- 
choly and musing; but for you — well, go to. 154 

Fenton. Well, I shall see her to-day. Hold, 
there 's money for thee ; let me have thy voice in my 
behllf. If thou seest her before me, commend me. 

Quickly. Will I ? i' faith, that we will ; and I will 
tell your worship more of the wart the next time we 
have confidence, and of other wooers. 160 

Fenton. Well, farewell ; I am in great haste now. 

Quickly. Farewell to your worship. — \^Exit Fen- 
ton?^ Truly, an honest gentleman ; but Anne loves 
him not, for I know Anne's mind as well as another 
does. — Out upon 't ! what have I forgot ? 




* Here 's the Twin-brother of thy Letter ' 



ACT II 

Scene I. Before Page's House 
Enter Mistress Page with a letter 

Mrs. Page. What, have I scaped love-letters in 
the holiday-time of my beauty, and am I now a sub- 
ject for them ? Let me see. 

[Reads] ' Ask me no reason why I love you ; for 
though Love use Reason for his physician, he admits 
him not for his counsellor. You are 7iot yotmg, no 
more am I ; go to then, there ''s sympathy : you are 
merry, so ajn I ; ha, ha! then there V more sympathy : 
you love sack, and so do I; would you desire better 

46 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 47. 

sympathy ? Let it suffice thee, Mistress Page, — at the 
least, if the love of soldier can suffice, — that I love thee. 
I will not say, pity me, — V is not a soldier-like 
phrase ; bid I say, love me. By me, 13 

Thine own true knight. 

By day or night, 

Or any kind of light, 

With all his might 

For thee to fight, John Falstaff.' 
What a Herod of Jewry is this ! — O wicked, wicked 
world ! One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with 
age to show himself a young gallant ! What an un- 
weighed behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard 
picked — with the devil's name! — out of my con- 
versation, that he dares in this manner assay me ? 
Why, he hath not been thrice in my company! — 
What should I say to him ? — I was then frugal of 
my mirth. — Heaven forgive me! — Why, I '11 exhibit 
a bill in the parliament fol: the putting down of men. 
How shall I be revenged on him ? for revenged I 
will be, as sure as his guts are made of puddings. 30 

Enter Mistress Ford 

Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page ! trust me, I was going 
to your house. 

Mrs. Page. And, trust me, I was coming to you. 
You look very ill. 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I '11 ne'er believe that ; I have to 
show to the contrary. 



48 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act il 

Mrs. Page. Faith, but you do, in my mind. 

Mrs. Ford. Well, I do then ; yet I say I could 
show you to the contrary. O Mistress Page, give 
me some counsel ! 40 

Mrs. Page. What 's the matter, woman ? 

Mrs. Ford. O woman, if it were not for one tri- 
fling respect, I could come to such honour ! 

Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, woman ! take the 
honour. What is it ? dispense with trifles ; what 
is it? 

Mi's. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an eternal 
moment or so, I could be knighted. 

Mrs. Page. What ? thou liest ! Sir Alice Ford ! 
These knights will hack; and so thou shouldst not 
alter the article of thy gentry. 51 

Mrs. Ford. We burn daylight. Here, read, read ; 
perceive how I might be knighted. I shall think 
the worse of fat men as long as I have an eye to 
make difference of men's liking; and yet he would 
not swear, praised women's modesty, and gave such 
orderly and well-behaved reproof to all uncomeliness 
that I would have sworn his disposition would have 
gone to the truth of his words ; but they do no more 
adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth 
Psalm to the tune of ' Green Sleeves.' What tem- 
pest, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of 
oil in his belly, ashore at Windsor? How shall I 
be revenged on him ? I think the best way were to 
entertain him with hope, till the wicked fire of lust 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 49 

have melted him in his own grease. — Did you ever 
h^ur the hke ? 67 

Mrs. Page. Letter for letter, but that the name of 
Page and Ford differs ! — To thy great comfort in 
this mystery of ill opinions, here 's the twin-brother 
of thy letter ; but let thine inherit jEirst, for I protest 
mine never shall. I warrant he hath a thousand 
of thfese letters, writ with blank space for different 
names, — sure, more, — and these are of the second 
edition. He will print them, out of doubt ; for he 
cares not what he puts into the press, when he 
would put us two. I had rather be a giantess, and 
lie under Mount Pelion. Well, I will find you twenty 
lascivious turtles ere one chaste man. 79 

Mrs. Ford. Why, this is the very same ; the very 
hand, the very words. What doth he think of 
us? 

Mrs. Page. Nay, I know not ; it makes me almost 
ready to wrangle with mine own honesty. I '11 enter- 
tain myself like one that I am not acquainted withal ; 
for, sure, unless he know some strain in me that I 
know not myself, he would never have boarded me 
in this fury. 

Mrs. Ford. Boarding call you it ? I '11 be sure to 
keep him above deck. 90 

Mrs. Page. So will I ; if he come under my hatches, 
I '11 never to sea again. Let 's be revenged on him ; 
let 's appoint him a meeting, give him a show of com- 
fort in his suit, and lead him on with a fine-baited 

MERRY WIVES — 4 



50 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act il 

delay, till he hath pawned his horses to mine host of 
the Garter. 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I will consent to act any villany 
against him that may not sully the chariness of our 
honesty. O, that my husband saw this letter ! it 
would give eternal food to his jealousy. loo 

Mrs. Page. Why, look where he comes ; and my 
good man too. He 's as far from jealousy as I am 
from giving him cause ; and that I hope is an un- 
measurable distance. 

Mrs. Ford. You are the happier woman. 

Mrs. Page. Let 's consult together against this 
greasy knight. Come hither. \,^^^y retire. 

Enter Ford with Pistol, and Page with Nym 

Ford. Well, I hope it be not so. 

Pistol. Hope is a curtal dog in some affairs ; Sir 
John affects thy wife. no 

Ford. Why, sir, my wife is not young. 

Pistol. He wooes both high and low, both rich and 
poor. 
Both young and old, one with another, Ford. 
He loves the galhmaufry ; Ford, perpend. 

Ford. Love my wife ! 

Pistol. With liver burning hot. Prevent, or go thou, 
Like Sir Actaeon he, with Ringwood at thy heels. 
O, odious is the name ! 

Ford. What name, sir ? 

Pistol. The horn, I say. Farewell. 120 



Scene IJ Merry Wives of Windsor 51 

Take heed, have open eye, for thieves do foot by 

night ; 
Take heed, ere summer comes or cuckoo-birds do 

sing. — 
Away, Sir Corporal Nym ! — 
Beheve it, Page ; he speaks sense. [_Exit. 

Ford. \_Aside'] I will be patient ; I will find out 
this. 125 

Nym. \_To Page'] And this is true ; I like not. the 
humour of lying. He hath wronged me in some 
humours ; I should have borne the humoured letter 
to her, but I have a sword, and it shall bite upon 
my necessity. He loves your wife ; there's the 
short and the long. My name is Corporal Nym ; I 
speak and I avouch ; 't is true : my name is Nym, 
and Falstaff loves your wife. Adieu. I love not the 
humour of bread and cheese, and there 's the hu- 
mour of it. Adieu. [Exit 

Page. The humour of it, quoth a' ! here 's a fel- 
low frights English out of his wits. 

Ford. I will seek out Falstaif . 

Page. I never heard such a drawling, affecting 
rogue. 140 

Ford. If I do find it, — well. 

Page. I will not believe such a Catalan, though the 
priest o' the town commended him for a true man. 

Ford. 'T was a good sensible fellow ; well. 

Page. How now, Meg ? 

\_Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford come forward. 



52 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ii 

Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George ? Hark you. 

Mrs. Ford. How now, sweet Frank ! why art thou 
melancholy ? 

Ford. I melancholy ! I am not melancholy. — 
Get you home, go. 150 

Mrs. Ford. Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy 
head. — Now, will you go. Mistress Page ? 

Mrs. Page. Have with you. — You '11 come to 
dinner, George ? — \_Aside to Mrs. Ford~\ Look who 
comes yonder ; she shall be our messenger to this 
paltry knight. 

Mrs. Ford. [Aside to Mrs. Page] Trust me, I 
thought on her ; she '11 fit it. 

Enter Mistress Quickly 

Mrs. Page. You are come to see my daughter 
Anne ? 

Quickly. Ay, forsooth ; and, I pray, how does 
good Mistress Anne ? 162 

Mrs. Page. Go in with us and see ; we have an 
hour's talk with you. 

\_Exeunt Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly. 

Page. How now. Master Ford ! 

Ford. You heard what this knave told me, did you 
not? 

Page. Yes ; and you heard what the other told me ? 

Ford. Do you think there is any truth in them ? 

Page. Hang 'em, slaves ! I do not think the 
knight would offer it. But these that accuse him in 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor ^^ 

his intent towards our wives are a yoke of his dis- 
carded men, very rogues now they be out of service. 

J^or^. Were they his men ? 174 

Page. Marry, were they. 

I^ord. I like it never the better for that. Does he 
he at the Garter ? 

Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend 
this voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loose 
to him ; and what he gets more of her than sharp 
words, let it lie on my head. 181 

Ford, I do not misdoubt my wife, but I would be 
loath to turn them together. A man may be too 
confident. I would have nothing lie on my head. 
I cannot be thus satisfied. 

Page. Look where my ranting host of the Garter 
comes; there is either liquor in his pate or money 
in his purse when he looks so merrily. — 

Enter Host 

How now, mine host ! 

Host. How now, bully-rook ! thou 'rt a gentleman. 
— Cavalero-justice, I say ! 191 

Enter Shallow 

Shahow. I follow, mine host, I follow. — Good 
even and twenty, good Master Page ! Master Page, 
will you go with us ? we have sport in hand. 

Host. Tell him, cavalero-justice ; tell him, bully- 
rook. 

Shallow. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between 



54 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act II 

Sir Hugh the Welsh priest and Caius the French 
doctor. 199 

Ford. Good mine host o' the Garter, a word with 
you. \_Drawing him aside. 

Host. What sayest thou, my bully-rook ? 

Shallow. \To Page\ Will you go with us to behold 
it ? My merry host hath had the measuring of their 
weapons, and, I think, hath appointed them con- 
trary places ; for, beheve me, I hear the parson is no 
jester. Hark, I will tell you what our sport shall be. 

\They converse apart. 

Host. Hast thou no suit against my knight, my 
guest-cavalier ? 209 

Ford. None, I protest ; but I '11 give you a pottle 
of burnt sack to give me recourse to him and tell 
him my name is Brook, — only for a jest. 

Host. My hand, bully. Thou shalt have egress 
and regress ; — said I well ? — and thy name shall 
be Brook. It is a merry knight. — Will you go, 
mynheers ? 

Shallow. Have with you, mine host. 

Page. I have heard the Frenchman hath good 
skill in his rapier. 219 

Shallow. Tut, sir, I could have told you more. In 
these times you stand on distance, your passes, stoc- 
cadoes, and I know not what. 'T is the heart. 
Master Page ; 't is here, 't is here. I have seen the 
time, with my long sword I would have made you 
four tall fellows skip like rats. 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 55 

Host. Here, boys, here, here ! shall we wag ? 226 

Page. Have with you. — I had rather hear them 
scold than fight. \_Exeimt Host, Shallow, and Page. 

Ford. Though Page be a secure fool, and stands 
so firmly on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off 
my opinion so easily. She was in his company at 
Page's house, and w^hat they made there, I know not. 
Well, I will look further into 't ; and I have a dis- 
guise to sound Falstaff . If I find her honest, I lose 
not my labour ; if she be otherwise, 't is labour well 
bestowed. \Exit. 

Scene II. A Room in the Garter Inn 
Enter Falstaff and Pistol 

Falstaff. I will not lend thee a penny. 

Pistol. Why, then the world 's mine oyster, 
Which I with sword will open. 

Falstaff. Not a penny. I have been content, sir, 
you should lay my countenance to pawn ; I have 
grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for 
you and your coach-fellow Nym, or else you had 
looked through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. 
I am damned in hell for swearing to gentlemen my 
friends, you were good soldiers and tall fellows ; 
and when Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her 
fan, I took 't upon mine honour thou hadst it not. 12 

Pistol. Didst not thou share ? hadst thou not fifteen 
pence ? 



^6 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ii 

Falstaff. Reason, you rogue, reason ; thinkest thou 
I '11 endanger my soul gratis ? At a word, hang no 
more about me, I am no gibbet for you. Go. A short 
knife and a throng ! To your manor of Pickt-hatch ! 
Go. — You '11 not bear a letter for me, you rogue ! you 
stand upon your honour. Why, thou unconfinable 
baseness, it is as much as I can do to keep the terms 
of my honour precise. I, ay, I myself sometimes, 
leaving the fear of God on the left hand and hiding 
mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to 
hedge, and to lurch ; and yet you, rogue, will en- 
sconce your rags, your cat-a-mountain looks, your 
red-lattice phrases, and your bold-beating oaths, 
under the shelter of your honour ! You will not do 
it, you ! 28 

Pistol. I do relent ; what would thou more of man ? 

Enter Robin 

Robin. Sir, here 's a woman would speak with 
you. 

Falstaff. Let her approach. 

Enter Mistress Quickly 

Quickly. Give your worship good morrow. 
Falstaff. Good morrow, good wife. 

Quickly. Not so, an 't please your worship. 
Falstaff. Good maid, then. 

Quickly. I '11 be sworn ; as my mother was, the 
first hour I was born. 38 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 57 

Falstaff. I do believe the swearer. What with 
me ? 

Quickly. Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or 
two? 

Falstaff. Two thousand, fair woman ; and I '11 
vouchsafe thee the hearing. 

Quickly. There is one Mistress Ford, sir, — I pray, 
come a little nearer this ways. — I myself dwell with 
Master Doctor Caius, — 

Falstaff. Well, one Mistress Ford, you say, — 

Quickly. Your worship says very true. — I pray 
your worship, come a little nearer this ways. 50 

Falstaff. I warrant thee, nobody hears ; — mine 
own people, mine own people. 

Quickly. Are they so ? God bless them and make 
them his servants ! 

Falstaff. Well, Mistress Ford, — what of her ? 

Quickly. Why, sir, she's a good creature. Lord, 
Lord ! your worship 's a wanton ! Well, heaven for- 
give you and all of us, I pray ! 

Falstaff. Mistress Ford ; come, Mistress Ford, — 59 

Quickly, Marry, this is the short and the long of 
it ; you have brought her into such a canaries as 't is 
wonderful. The best courtier of them all, when the 
court lay at Windsor, could never have brought her 
to such a canary. Yet there has been knights, and 
lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches, I warrant 
you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after 
gift ; smelling so sweetly, all musk, and so rushling, 



58 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act il 

I warrant you, in silk and gold ; and in such alligant 
terms ; and in such wine and sugar of the best and 
the fairest, that would have won any woman's heart ; 
and, I warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink 
of her. I had myself twenty angels given me this 
morning, but I defy all angels, in any such sort, as 
they say, but in the way of honesty ; and, I warrant 
you, they could never get her so much as sip on a 
cup with the proudest of them all ; and yet there has 
been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners ; but, I 
warrant you, all is one with her. 'j?. 

Fa/staff. But what says she to me ? be brief, my 
good she-Mercury. 

Quickly. Marry, she hath received your letter, for 
the which she thanks you a thousand times ; and 
she gives you to notify that her husband will be ab- 
sence .from his house between ten and eleven. 

Faktaff. Ten and eleven ? 

Quickly. Ay, forsooth ; and then you may come 
and see the picture, she says, that you wot of. Mas- 
ter Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas ! 
the sweet woman leads an ill life with him. He 's 
a very jealousy man ; she leads a very frampold life 
with him, good heart. 91 

Falstaff. Ten and eleven. — Woman, commend 
me to her ; I will not fail her. 

Quickly. Why, you say well. But I have another 
messenger to your worship. Mistress Page hath her 
hearty commendations to you too ; and let me tell 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 59 

you in your ear she 's as fartuous a civil modest wife, 
and one, I tell you, that will not miss you morning 
nor evening prayer, as any is in Windsor, whoe'er be 
the other ; and she bade me tell your worship that her 
husband is seldom from home, but she hopes there 
will come a time. I never knew a woman so dote 
upon a man. Surely I think you have charms, la; 
yes, in truth. 104 

Fahtaff. Not I, I assure thee ; setting the attrac- 
tion of my good parts aside, I have no other charms. 

Quickly. Blessing on your heart for 't ! 

Fahtaff, But, I pray thee, tell me this : has Ford's 
wife and Page's wife acquainted each other how 
they love me ? no 

Quickly. That were a jest indeed ! they have not 
so little grace, I hope ; that were a trick indeed I 
But Mistress Page would desire you to send her your 
little page, of all loves. Her husband has a marvel- 
lous infection to the little page ; and truly Master 
Page is an honest man. Never a wife in Windsor 
leads a better life than she does. Do what she will, 
say what she will, take all, pay all, go to bed when 
she hst, rise when she list, all is as she will ; and 
truly she deserves it, for if there be a kind woman 
in Windsor, she is one. You must send her your 
page ; no remedy. 122 

Falstaff. Why, I will. 

Quickly. Nay, but do so, then ; and, look you, he 
may come and go between you both ; and in any case 



6o Merry Wives of Windsor [Act il 

have a nay-word, that you may know one another's 
mind, and the boy never need to understand any 
thing, for 't is not good that children should know 
any wickedness. Old folks, you know, have discre- 
tion/ as they say, and know the world. 130 

Falstaff. Fare thee well ; commend me to them 
both. There 's my purse ; I am yet thy debtor. — 
Boy, go along with this woman. — [^Exeunt Mistress 
Quickly and Robing This news distracts me ! 

Pistol. This punk is one of Cupid's carriers. — 
Clap on more sails ; pursue, up with your fights ! 
Give fire ! she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all ! 

\Exit. 

Falstaff. Sayest thou so, old Jack ? go thy ways ; 
I '11 make more of thy old body than I have done. 
Will they yet look after thee ? Wilt thou, after the 
expense of so much money, be now a gainer ? Good 
body, I thank thee. Let them say 't is grossly done ; 
so it be fairly done, no matter. 143 

Enter Bardolph 

Bardolph. Sir John, there 's one Master Brook be- 
low would fain speak with you and be acquainted 
with you, and hath sent your worship a morning's 
draught of sack. 

Falstaff. Brook is his name ? 

Bardolph. Ay, sir. 

Falstaff. Call him in. — \Exit Bardolph^^ Such 
Brooks are welcome to me, that o'erflow such liquor. 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 6i 

— Ah, ha ! Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, have 
I encompassed you ? go to ; via ! 153 

Re-enter Bardolph, with Ford disguised 

Ford. Bless you, sir ! 

Falstaff. And you, sir ! Would you speak with 
me? 

Ford. I make bold to press with so little prepara- 
tion upon you. 

Falstaff. You 're welcome. What 's your will ? — 
Give us leave, drawer. \Exit Bardolph. 

Ford. Sir, I am a gentleman that have spent 
much ; my name is Brook. 162 

Falstaff. Good Master Brook, I desire more ac- 
quaintance of you. 

Ford. Good Sir John, I sue for yours ; not to 
charge you, for I must let you understand I think 
myself in better plight for a lender than you are, the 
which hath something emboldened me to this unsea- 
soned intrusion ; for they say, if money go before, 
all ways do lie open. 170 

Falstaff. Money is a good soldier, sir, and will on. 

Ford. Troth, and I have a bag of money here 
troubles me ; if you will help to bear it, Sir John, 
take all, or half, for easing me of the carriage. 

Falstaff. Sir, I know not how I may deserve to be 
your porter. 

Ford. I will tell you, sir, if you will give me the 
hearing. 



62 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ii 

Falstaff. Speak, good Master Brook ; I shall be 
glad to be your servant. i8o 

Ford. Sir, I hear you are a scholar, — I will be brief 
with you, — and you have been a man long known to 
me, though I had never so good means as desire to 
make myself acquainted with you. I shall discover 
a thing to you wherein I must very much lay open 
mine own imperfection ; but, good Sir John, as you 
have one eye upon my follies, as you hear them un- 
folded, turn another into the register of your own, 
that I may pass with a reproof the easier, sith you 
yourself know how easy it is to be such an offender. 

Falstaff. Very well, sir ; proceed. 191 

Ford. There is a gentlewoman in this town ; her 
husband's name is Ford. 

Falstaff. Well, sir. 

Ford. I have long loved her, and, I protest to you, 
bestowed much on her ; followed her with a doting 
observance, engrossed opportunities to meet her, feed 
every slight occasion that could but niggardly give 
me sight of her ; not only bought many presents to 
give her, but have given largely to many to know 
what she would have given ; briefly, I have pursued 
her as love hath pursued me, which hath been on 
the wing of all occasions. But whatsoever I have 
merited, either in my mind or in my means, meed, I 
am sure, I have received none, unless experience be 
a jewel ; that I have purchased at an infinite rate, 
and that hath taught me to say this : 207 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 6^ 

* Lo7>e like a shadow flies wheit substance love puj'sues, 
Pursuing that that flies^ a7id flying what pui'suesJ 

Falstaff'. Have you received no promise of satis- 
faction at her hands ? 211 

Ford. Never. 

Falstaff. Have you importuned her to such a pur- 
pose ? 

Ford. Never. 

Falstaff. Of what quahty was your love, tlien ? 

Ford. Like a fair house built on another man's 
ground ; so that I have lost my edifice by mistaking 
the place where I erected it. 

Falstaff. To what purpose have you unfolded this 
to me ? 221 

Ford. When I have told you that, I have told you 
all. Some say, that though she appear honest to me, 
yet in other places she enlargeth her mirth so far 
that there is shrewd construction made of her. Now, 
Sir John, here is the heart of my purpose : you are a 
gentleman of excellent breeding, admirable discourse, 
of great admittance, authentic in your place and per- 
son, generally allowed for your many warlike, court- 
like, and learned preparations. 230 

Falstaff. O, sir ! 

Fo?'d. Believe it, for you know it. There is 
money ; spend it, spend it ; spend more ; spend all 
I have, only give me so much of your time in ex- 
change of it as to lay an amiable siege to the honesty 
of this Ford's wife. Use your art of wooing, win her 



64 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act II 

to consent to you ; if any man may, you may as soon 
as any. 

Falstaff. Would it apply well to the vehemency of 
your affection, that I should win what you would 
enjoy? Methinks you prescribe to yourself very 
preposterously. 242 

Ford. O, understand my drift. She dwells so 
securely on the excellency of her honour that the 
folly of my soul dares not present itself ; she is too 
bright to be looked against. Now, could I come to 
her with any detection in my hand, my desires had 
instance and argument to commend themselves ; I 
could drive her then from the ward of her purity, 
her reputation, her marriage-vow, and a thousand 
other her defences, which now are too-too strongly 
embattled against me. What say you to 't. Sir 
John ? 253 

Falstaff. Master Brook, I will first make bold with 
your money ; next, give me your hand ; and last, as I 
am a gentleman, you shall, if you will, enjoy Ford's 
wife. 

Ford. O good sir. 

Falstaff. I say you shall. 

Ford. Want no money. Sir John ; you shall want 
none. 261 

Falstaff. Want no Mistress Ford, Master Brook ; 
you shall want none. I shall be with her, I may tell 
you, by her own appointment, — even as you came 
in to me, her assistant or go-between parted from 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 65 

me, — I say I shall be with her between ten and 
eleven ; for at that time the jealous rascally knave 
her husband will be forth. Come you to me at 
night ; you shall know how I speed. 

Ford. I am blest in your acquaintance. Do you 
know Ford, sir ? 271 

Fahtaff. Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave ! I 
know him not. — Yet I wrong him to call him poor ; 
they say the jealous wittolly knave hath masses of 
money, for the which his wife seems to me well- 
favoured. I will use her as the key of the cuck- 
oldly rogue's coffer, and there 's my harvest-home. 

Ford. I would you knew Ford, sir, that you might 
avoid him if you saw him. 279 

Falstaff. Hang him, mechanical salt-butter rogue ! 
I will stare him out of his wits, I will awe him with 
my cudgel ; it shall hang like a meteor o'er the 
cuckold's horns. Master Brook, thou shalt know I 
will predominate over the peasant, and thou shalt lie 
with his wife. — Come to me soon at night. — Ford 's 
a knave, and I will aggravate his style ; thou. Master 
Brook, shalt know him for knave and cuckold. — 
Come to me soon at night. \Exit. 

Ford. What a damned Epicurean rascal is this ! 
My heart is ready to crack with impatience. Who 
says this is improvident jealousy ? my wife hath sent 
to him, the hour is fixed, the match is made. Would 
any man have thought this ? See the hell of having 
a false woman ! My bed shall be abused, my coffers 

MERRY WIVES — 5 



66 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ii 

ransacked, my reputation gnawn at ; and I shall not 
only receive this villanous wrong, but stand under 
the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that 
does me this wrong. Terms ! names ! Amaimon 
sounds well, Lucifer well, Barbason well, yet they 
are devils' additions, the names of jEiends ; but cuck- 300 
old ! wittol-cuckold ! the devil himself hath not such 
a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass ; he will trust 
his wife, he will not be jealous. I will rather trust a 
Fleming with my butter. Parson Hugh the Welsh- 
man with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitae 
bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than 
my wife with herself. Then she plots, then she rumi- 
nates, then she devises ; and what they think in their 
hearts they may effect, they will break their hearts 
but they will effect. God be praised for my jeal-310 
ousy ! — Eleven o'clock the hour. I will prevent this, 
detect my wife, be revenged on Falstaff, and laugh 
at Page. I will about it ; better three hours too soon 
than a minute too late. Fie, fie, fie ! cuckold ! cuck- 
old ! cuckold! [Exit. 

Scene III. A Field near Windsor 
Enter Caius and Rugby 

Caius. Jack Rugby 1 
Rugby. Sir ? 

Caius. Vat is de clock. Jack ? 
Rugby. 'T is past the hour, sir, that Sir Hugh 
promised to meet. 



Scene III] Merry Wives of Windsor 67 

Caius. By gar, he has save his soul, dat he is no 
come ; he has pray his Pible well, dat he is no come. 
By gar, Jack Rugby, he is dead already, if he be 
come. / 

Rugby. He is wise, sir ; he knew your worship 
would kill him if he came. n 

Caius. By gar, de herring is no dead so as I vill 
kill him. Take your rapier, Jack ; I vill tell you how 
I vill kill him. 

Rugby. Alas, sir, I cannot fence. 

Caius. Villany, take your rapier. 

Rugby. Forbear ; here 's company. 

Enter Host, Shallow, Slender, and Page 

Host. Bless thee, bully doctor ! 

Shallow. Save you, Master Doctor Caius ! 

Page. Now, good master doctor ! 20 

Slender. Give you good morrow, sir. 

Caius. Vat be all you, one, two, tree, four, come 
for? 

Host. To see thee fight, to see thee foin, to see 
thee traverse ; to see thee here, to see thee there ; to 
see thee pass thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy 
distance, thy montant. Is he dead, my Ethiopian ? 
is he dead, my Francisco ? ha, bully ! What says my 
^sculapius ? my Galen ? my heart of elder ? ha ! is 
he dead, bully stale ? is he dead ? 30 

Caius. By gar, he is de coward Jack priest of de 
vorld ; he is not show his face. 



68 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act il 

Host. Thou art a Castilian, King Urinal ! Hector 
of Greece, my boy ! 

Caius. I pray you, bear vitness that me have stay 
six or seven, two, tree hours for him, and he is no 
come. 

Shallow. He is the wiser man, master doctor. He 
is a curer of souls, and you a curer of bodies ; if you 
should fight, you go against the hair of your profes- 
sions. — Is it not true. Master Page ? 41 

Page. Master Shallow, you have yourself been a 
great fighter, though now a man of peace. 

Shallow. Bodykins, Master Page, though I now be 
old and of the peace, if I see a sword out, my finger 
itches to make one. Though we are justices and 
doctors and churchmen. Master Page, we have some 
salt of our youth in us; we are the sons of women. 
Master Page. 

Page. 'T is true. Master Shallow. 50 

Shallow. It will be found so. Master Page. — 
Master Doctor Caius, I am come to fetch you home. 
I am sworn of the -peace ; you have showed yourself 
a wise physician, and Sir Hugh hath shown himself a 
wise and patient churchman. You must go with me, 
master doctor. 

Host. Pardon, guest-justice. — A word, Mounseur 
Mock-water. 

Caius. Mock-vater ! vat is dat ? 

Host. Mock-water, in our English tongue, is 
valour, bully. 61 



Scene iiij Merry Wives of Windsor 69 

Caius. By gar, den, I have as mush mock-vater as 
de EngHshman. — Scurvy jack-dog priest ! by gar, 
me vill cut his ears. 

Host. He will clapper-claw thee tightly, bully. 

Caius. Clapper-de-claw ! vat is dat ? 

Host. That is, he will make thee amends. 

Cams. By gar, me do look he shall clapper-de-claw 
me ; for, by gar, me vill have it. 

Most. And I will provoke him to 't, or let him 
wag. 71 

Caius. Me tank you for dat. 

Host. And, moreover, bully, — but first, master 
guest, and Master Page, and eke Cavalero Slender, 
go you through the town to Frogmore. \_Aside to them. 

Page. Sir Hugh is there, is he ? 

Host. He is there. See what humour he is in, 
and I will bring the doctor about by the fields. 
Will it do well? 

Shallow. We will do it. 80 

Page^ Shallow^ and Slender. Adieu, good master 
doctor. \_Exeunt Page, Shallow, and Slender. 

Caius. By gar, me vill kill de priest, for he speak 
for a jack-a-nape to Anne Page. 

Host. Let him die. Sheathe thy impatience, throw 
cold water on thy choler ; go about the fields with me 
through Frogmore. I will bring thee where Mistress 
Anne Page is, at a farm-house a-f easting, and thou 
shalt woo her. Cried game ? said I well ? 89 

Caius. By gar, me tank you for dat ; by gar, I love 



yo Merry Wives of Windsor [Act il 

you, and I shall procure-a you de good guest, de earl, 
de knight, de lords, de gentlemen, my patients. 

Host. For the which I will be thy adversary to- 
ward Anne Page. Said I well ? 

Cams. By gar, 't is good ; veil said. 

Host. Let us wag, then. 

Caius. Come at my heels. Jack Rugby. [Exeunt. 




Mistress Page and Robin (Scene 2) 



ACT III 

Scene I. A Field near Frogmore 
Enter Sir Hugh Evans and Simple 

Evans-. I pray you now, good Master Slender's 
servingman, and friend Simple by your name, which 
way have you looked for Master Caius, that calls 
himself doctor of physic ? 

Simple. Marry, sir, the pitty-ward, the park-ward, 
every way ; old Windsor way, and every way but the 
town way. 

71 



72 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

Evans. I most fehemently desire you you will also 
look that way. 9 

Simple. I will, sir. \_Exit. 

Evans. Pless my soul, how full of cholers I am, 
and trempling of mind ! — I shall be glad if he have 
deceived me. — How melancholies I am! — I will 
knog his urinals about his knave's costard when I 
have good opportunities for the ork. — Pless my soul! 
[Sings] To shallow rive7's, to whose falls 
Melodious pirds sings madrigals ; 
There will we make our peds of roses, 
And a thousa7id fragrant posies. 
To shallow — ' 20 

Mercy on me ! I have a great dispositions to cry. — 
[Sings] MelodioiLS pirds sing madrigals — 
Whenas I sat in Pabylon — 
And a thousand vagram posies. 
To shalloiv — 

Re-enter Simple 

Simple. Yonder he is coming, this way, Sir Hugh. 

Evans. He 's welcome. — 

[Sings] To shallow rivers^ to whose falls — 
Heaven prosper the right ! — What weapons is he ? 

Simple. No weapons, sir. There comes my mas- 
ter. Master Shallow, and another gentleman, from 
Frogmore, over the stile, this way. 32 

Evans. Pray you, give me my gown ; or else keep 
it in your arms. 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 73 

Enter Page, Shallow, and Slender 

Shallow. How now, master parson ! Good mor- 
row, good Sir Hugh. Keep a gamester from the 
dice, and a good student from his book, and it is 
wonderful. 

Slender. [Aside'] Ah, sweet Anne Page ! 

Page. Save you, good Sir Hugh ! 40 

Evans. Pless you from his mercy sake, all of you ! 

Shallow. What, the sword and the word ! do you 
study them both, master parson ? 

Page. And youthful still ! in your doublet and 
hose this raw rheumatic day ! 

Eijans. There is reasons and causes for it. 

Page. We are come to you to do a good office, 
master parson. 

Evans. Fery well ; what is it ? 49 

Page. Yonder is a most reverend gentleman, who, 
belike having received wrong by some person, is at 
most odds with his own gravity and patience that 
ever you saw. 

Shallow. I have lived fourscore years and upward ; 
I never heard a man of his place, gravity, and learn- 
ing, so wide of his own respect. 

Evans. What is he ? 

Page. I think you know him ; Master Doctor 
Caius, the renowned French physician. 59 

Evans. Got's will, and his passion of my heart ! I 
had as lief you would tell me of a mess of porridge. 



74 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

Page. Why? 

Evans. He has no more knowledge in Hibo- 
crates and Galen, — and he is a knave besides, a 
cowardly knave as you would desires to be ac- 
quainted withal. 

Page. I warrant you, he 's the man should fight 
with him. 

Slender. \_Aside\ O sweet Anne Page ! 

Shallow. It appears so by his weapons. — Keep 
them asunder. — Here comes Doctor Caius. 71 

Enter Host, Caius, and Rugby 

Page. Nay, good master parson, keep in your 
weapon. 

Shallow. So do you, good master doctor. 

Host. Disarm them, and let them question ; let 
them keep their limbs whole and hack our English. 

Caius. I pray you, let-a me speak a word with 
your ear. Verefore vill you not meet-a me ? 

Evans. \^Aside to Cams'] Pray you, use your pa- 
tience ; in good time. 80 

Caius. By gar, you are de coward, de Jack dog, 
John ape. 

Evans. [Aside to Caius] Pray you, let us not be 
laughing-stogs to other men's humours ; I desire you 
in friendship, and I will one way or other make you 
amends. — [Aloud] I will knog your urinals about 
your knave's cogscomb for missing your meetings 
and appointments. 88 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 75 

Caius. Diable ! Jack Rugby, — mine host de Jar- 
teer, — have I not stay for him to kill him ? have I 
not, at de place I did appoint ? 

Evans. As I am a Christians soul now, look you, 
this is the place appointed. I '11 be judgment by 
mine host of the Garter. 

Host. Peace, I say, Gallia and Gaul, French and 
Welsh, soul-curer and body-curer ! 

Caius. Ay, dat is very good ; excellent. 97 

Host. Peace, I say ! hear mine host of the Garter. 
Am I politic ? am I subtle ? am I a Machiavel ? Shall 
I lose my doctor ? no ; he gives me the potions and 
the motions. Shall I lose my parson, my priest, my 
Sir Hugh ? no ; he gives me the proverbs and the 
noverbs. — Give me thy hand, terrestrial ; so. — Give 
me thy hand, celestial ; so. — Boys of art, I have 
deceived you both ; I have directed you to wrong 
places. Your hearts are mighty, your skins are 
whole, and let burnt sack be the issue. — Come, lay 
their swords to pawn. — Follow me, lads of peace ; 
follow, follow, follow. 109 

Shallow. Trust me, a mad host. — Follow, gentle- 
men, follow. 

Slender. [Aside] O sweet Anne Page ! 

\_Exeunt Shallow^ Slender ^ E^age, and Host, 

Caius. Ha, do I perceive dat? have you make-a 
de sot of us, ha, ha ? 

Evans. This is well ; he has made us his vlout- 
ing-stog. — I desire you that we may be friends ; 



76 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

and let us knog our prains together to be revenge 
on this same scall, scurvy, cogging companion, the 
host of the Garter. 119 

Cams. By gar, with all my heart. He promise to 
bring me vere is Anne Page ; by gar, he deceive me 
too. 

Evans. Well, I will smite his noddles. — Pray you, 
follow. \_Exeunt. 

Scene II. A Street 
Enter Mistress Page and Robin 

Mrs. Page. Nay, keep your way, little gallant ; you 
were wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader. 
Whether had you rather lead mine eyes, or eye your 
master's heels ? 

Robin. I had rather, forsooth, go before you like 
a man than follow him like a dwarf. 

Mrs. Page. O, you are a flattering boy ; now I see 
you '11 be a courtier. 

Enter Ford 

Ford. Well met, Mistress Page. Whither go you ? 9 

Mi's. Page. Truly, sir, to see your wife. Is she at 
home ? 

Ford. Ay ; and as idle as she may hang together, 
for want of company. I think, if your husbands were 
dead, you two w^ould marry. 

Mrs. Page. Be sure of that, — two other husbands. 

Ford. Where had you this pretty weathercock ? 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 77 

Mrs. Page. I cannot tell what the dickens his 
name is my husband had him of. — What do you 
call your knight's name, sirrah ? 

Robin. Sir John Falstaff. 20 

Ford. Sir John Falstaff ! 

Mrs, Page. He, he ; I can never hit on 's name. 
— There is such a league between my good man 
and .he ! Is your wife at home indeed ? 

Ford. Indeed she is. 

Mrs. Page. By your leave, sir. I am sick till I 
see her. \_Exeunt Mrs. Page and Robin. 

Ford. Has Page any brains ? hath he any eyes ? 
hath he any thinking ? Sure they sleep ; he hath no 
use of them. Why, this boy will carry a letter 30 
twenty mile as easy as a cannon will shoot point- 
blank twelve score. He pieces out his wife's incli- 
nation, he gives her folly motion and advantage ; 
and now she 's going to my wife, and Falstaff 's boy 
with her. A man may hear this shower sing in the 
wind. — And Falstaff 's boy with her ! — Good plots, 
they are laid ; and our revolted wives share damna- 
tion together. Well ; I will take him, then torture 
my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from 
the so-seeming Mistress Page, divulge Page himself 40 
for a secure and wilful Actaeon ; and to these violent 
proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim. — 
\^Clock strikes?^ The clock gives me my cue, and 
my assurance bids me search ; there I shall find 
Falstaff. I shall be rather praised for this than 



78 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iii 

mocked ; for it is as positive as the earth is firm that 
Falstaff is there. I will go. 

Enter Page, Shallow, Slender, Host, Sir Hugh 
Evans, Caius, and Rugby 

Shallow, Page, etc. Well met. Master Ford. 

Ford, Trust me, a good knot. I have good cheer 
at home, and I pray you all go with me. 50 

Shallow. I must excuse myself. Master Ford. 

Slender. And so must I, sir ; we have appointed 
to dine with Mistress Anne, and I would not break 
with her for more money than I '11 speak of. 

Shallow. We have lingered about a match between 
Anne Page and my cousin Slender, and this day we 
shall have our answer. 

Slender. I hope I have your good will, father 
Page. 59 

Page. You have, Master Slender, I stand wholly 
for you ; — but my wife, master doctor, is for you 
altogether. 

Caius. Ah, be-gar ; and de maid is love-a me. 
My nursh-a Quickly tell me so mush. 

Host. What say you to young Master Fenton ? he 
capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes 
verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May. 
He will carry 't, he will carry 't ; 't is in his buttons ; 
he will carry 't. 69 

Page. Not by my consent, I promise you. The 
gentleman is of no having ; he kept company with 



Scene III] Merry Wives of Windsor 79 

the wild prince and Poins ; he is of too high a re- 
gion ; he knows too much. No, he shall not knit a 
knot in his fortunes with the finger of my substance. 
If he take her, let him take her simply ; the wealth 
I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes 
not that way. 

Ford. I beseech you heartily, some of you go 
home with me to dinner. Besides your cheer, you 
shall have sport ; I will show you a monster. — Mas- 
ter doctor, you shall go ; — so shall you. Master 
Page ; — and you. Sir Hugh. 82 

Shallow. Well, fare you well. — We shall have the 
freer wooing at Master Page's. 

[Exeunt Shallow a7id Slender. 

Caius. Go home, John Rugby ; I come anon. 

\Exit Rugby. 

Host. Farewell, my hearts. I will to my honest 
knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him. \Exit. 

Ford. \Aside'\ I think I shall drink in pipe-wine 
first with him ; I '11 make him dance. — Will you go, 
gentles ? 90 

All. Have with you to see this monster. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. A Room in Ford^s House 

Fitter Mistress Ford and Mistress Page 

Mrs. Ford. What, John ! — What, Robert ! 
Mi^s. Page. Quickly, quickly ! Is the buck- 
basket — 



8o Merry Wives of Windsor [Act III 

Mrs. Ford, I warrant. — What, Robin, I say I 
Enter Servants tvith a basket 

Mrs. Page. Come, come, come. 

Mrs. Ford, Here, set it down. 

Mrs. Page. Give your men the charge ; we must 
be brief. 8 

Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John and 
Robert, be ready here hard by in the brew-house, 
and when I suddenly call you, come forth, and with- 
out any pause or staggering take this basket on your 
shoulders ; that done, trudge with it in all haste and 
carry it among the whitsters in Datchet-mead, and 
there empty it in the muddy ditch close by the 
Thames side. 

Mrs. Page. You will do it ? 

Mrs. Ford. I ha' told them over and over ; they 
lack no direction. — Be gone, and come when you 
are called. \Exeunt Servants. 

Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin. 21 

Enter Robin 

Mrs. Ford. How now, my eyas-musket ! what 
news with you? 

Robin. My master. Sir John, is come in at your 
back-door. Mistress Ford, and requests your com- 
pany. 

Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-Lent, have you been 
true to us ? 



Scene III] Merry Wives of Windsor 8i 

Robin. Ay, I '11 be sworn. My master knows not 
of your being here and hath threatened to put me 
into everlasting liberty if I tell you of it; for he 
swears he '11 turn me away. 32 

Mrs. Page. Thou 'rt a good boy ; this secrecy of 
thine shall be a tailor to thee, and shall make thee 
a new doublet and hose. — I '11 go hide me. 

Mrs. Ford. Do so. — Go tell thy master I am 
alone. — \Exit Robi7i?[ Mistress Page, remember you 
your cue. 

Mrs. Page. I warrant thee ; if I do not act it, hiss 39 
me. \^Exit. 

Mrs. Ford. Go to, then. We '11 use this unwhole- 
some humidity, this gross watery pumpion ; we '11 
teach him to know turtles from jays. 

Enter Falstaff 

Falstaff. Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel ? 
Why, now let me die, for I have lived long enough ; 
this is the period of my ambition. O this blessed 
hour ! 

Mrs. Ford. O sweet Sir John ! 48 

Falstaff. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot 
prate, Mistress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish : 
I would thy husband were dead, — I '11 speak it be- 
fore the best lord, — I would make thee my lady. 

Mrs. Ford. I your lady. Sir John ! alas, I should 
be a pitiful lady ! 

Falstaff. Let the court of France show me such 

MERRY WIVES — 6 



82 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

another. I see how thine eye would emulate the 
diamond ; thou hast the right arched beauty of the 
brow that becomes the ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or 
any tire of Venetian admittance. 59 

Mrs. Ford. A plain kerchief, Sir John ; my brows 
become nothing else, — nor that well neither. 

Fahtaff. By the Lord, thou art a traitor to say so. 
Thou wouldst make an absolute courtier ; and the 
firm fixture of thy foot would give an excellent motion 
to thy gait in a semi-circled farthingale. I see what 
thou wert, if Fortune thy foe were not. Nature thy 
friend. Come, thou canst not hide it. 

Mi's. Ford. Believe me, there 's no such thing in 
me. 69 

Fahtaff. What made me love thee ? let that per- 
suade thee there 's something extraordinary in thee. 
Come, I cannot cog and say thou art this and that, 
like a many of these lisping hawthorn-buds, that 
come like women in men's apparel and smell like 
Bucklersbury in simple time, — I cannot ; but I love 
thee, none but thee, and thou deservest it. 

Mrs. Ford. Do not betray me, sir. I fear you love 
Mistress Page. 

Falstaff. Thou mightst as well say I love to walk 
by the Counter-gate, which is as hateful to me as the 
reek of a lime-kiln. 81 

Mrs. Ford. Well, heaven knows how I love you, 
and you shall one day find it. 

Falstaff. Keep in that mind ; I '11 deserve it. 



Scene III] Merry Wives of Windsor 83 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I must tell you, so you do ; or 
else I could not be in that mind. 

Robin. [ Within] Mistress Ford, Mistress Ford ! 
here 's Mistress Page at the door, sweating and blow- 
ing and looking wildly, and would needs speak with 
you presently. 90 

Falstaff. She shall not see me ; I will ensconce me 
behind the arras. 

Mrs. Ford. Pray you, do so ; she 's a very tattling 
woman. — [Falstaff hides himself . 

Re-enter Mistress Page and Robin 

What 's the matter ? how now ! 

Mrs. Page. O Mistress Ford, what have you done? 
You 're shamed, you 're overthrown, you 're undone 
for ever ! 

Mrs. Ford. What 's the matter, good Mistress Page ? 

Mrs. Page. O well-a-day, Mistress Ford ! having 
an honest man to your husband, to give him such 
cause of suspicion ! 102 

Mrs. Ford. What cause of suspicion ? 

Mrs. Page. What cause of suspicion ! — Out upon 
you ! how am I mistook in you ! 

Mrs. Ford. Why, alas, what 's the matter ? 

Mrs. Page. Your husband 's coming hither, woman, 
with all the officers in Windsor, to search for a gentle- 
man that he says is here now in the house by your 
consent, to take an ill advantage of his absence. 
You are undone. m 



84 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

Mrs. Ford. 'T is not so, I hope. 

Mrs. Page. Pray heaven it be not so, that you have 
such a man here ! but 't is most certain your hus- 
band 's coming, with half Windsor at his heels, to 
search for such a one. I come before to tell you. If 
you know yourself clear, why, I am glad of it ; but if 
you have a friend here, convey, convey him out. Be 
not amazed ; call all your senses to you, defend your 
reputation, or bid farewell to your good life for ever. 120 

Mrs. Ford. What shall I do ? There is a gentle- 
man my dear friend ; and I fear not mine own shame 
so much as his peril. I had rather than a thousand 
pound he were out of the house. 

Mi's. Page. For shame ! never stand ' you had 
rather ' and 'you had rather ; ' your husband 's here 
at hand ; bethink you of some conveyance ; in the 
house you cannot hide him. O, how have you de- 
ceived me ! Look, here is a basket. If he be of 
any reasonable stature, he may creep in here ; and 
throw foul linen upon him, as if it were going to 
bucking ; or — it is whiting-time — send him by your 
two men to Datchet-mead. 133 

Mrs. Ford. He 's too big to go in there. What 
shall I do ? 

Falstaff. [^Coming forward] Let me see 't, let me 
see 't, O, let me see 't ! I '11 in, I '11 in. Follow your 
friend's counsel. I '11 in. 

Mrs. Page. What, Sir John Falstaff ! Are these 
your letters, knight ? 140 



Scene III] Merry Wives of Windsor 85 

Falstaff, I love thee. Help me away. Let me 
creep in here. I '11 never — 

\Gets into the basket ; they cover him withfoid linen. 
Mrs. Page. Help to cover your master, boy. — 
Call your men, Mistress Ford. — You dissembling 
knight ! 

Mrs. Ford. What, John ! Robert ! John ! 

\Exit Robin. 

Re-enter Servants 

Go take up these clothes here quickly. — Where 's 
the cowl-staff ? look, how you drumble ! — Carry 
them to the laundress in Datchet-mead ; quickly, 
come ! 150 

Enter Ford, Page, Caius, and Sir Hugh Evans 

Ford. Pray you, come near. If I suspect without 
cause, why then make sport at me, then let me be 
your jest ; I deserve it. — How now ! whither bear 
you this ? 

Servants. To the laundress, forsooth. 

Mrs. Fo7'd. Vv^hy, what have you to do whither 
they bear it? You were best meddle with buck- 
washing. 158 

Fo7'd. Buck ! I would I could wash myself of the 
buck ! Buck, buck, buck! Ay, buck ; I warrant you, 
buck, and of the season too, it shall appear. — \_Exeunt 
Servants with the basket.'] Gentlemen, I have dreamed 
to-night ; I '11 tell you my dream. Here, here, here 



86 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

be my keys ; ascend my chambers, search, seek, find 
out. I '11 warrant we '11 unkennel the fox. — Let me 
stop this way first. — \Locking the dooi'?\ So, now 
uncape. 

Page. Good Master Ford, be contented ; you 
wrong yourself too much. 169 

Ford. True, Master Page. — Up, gentlemen, you 
shall see sport anon ; follow me, gentlemen. \Exit. 

Evans. This is fery fantastical humours and 
jealousies. 

Caius. By gar, 't is no the fashion of France ; it 
is not jealous in France. 

Page. Nay, follow him, gentlemen ; see the issue 
of his search. \_Exeunt Page, Cains, and Evans. 

Mrs. Page, Is there not a double excellency in 
this? 

Mrs. Ford. I know not which pleases me better, 
that my husband is deceived, or Sir John. 181 

Mrs. Page. What a taking was he in when your 
husband asked what was in the basket ! 

Mrs. Ford. I am half afraid he will have need of 
washing ; so throwing him into the water will do 
him a benefit. 

Mrs. Page. Hang him, dishonest rascal ! I would 
all of the same strain were in the same distress. 

Mrs. Ford. I think my husband hath some special 
suspicion of Falstafi's being here, for I never saw 
him so gross in his jealousy till now. 191 

Mrs. Page. I will lay a plot to try that, and we will 



Scene III] Merry Wives of Windsor 87 

yet have more tricks with Falstaff ; his dissolute 
disease will scarce obey this medicine. 

Mrs. Ford. Shall we send that foolish carrion, 
Mistress Quickly, to him and excuse his throwing 
into the water, and give him another hope, to betray 
him to another punishment ? 

Mrs. Page. We will do it ; let him be sent for 
to-morrow, eight o'clock, to have amends. 200 

Re-enter Ford, Page, Caius, and Sir Hugh Evans 

Ford. I cannot find him ; may be the knave 
bragged of that he could not compass. 

Mrs. Page. [Aside to Mrs. Ford'] Heard you that ? 

Mrs. Ford. You use me well. Master Ford, do you ? 

Ford. Ay, I do so. 

Mrs. Ford. Heaven make you better than your 
thoughts ! 

Ford. Amen ! 

Mrs. Page. You do yourself mighty wrong, Master 
Ford. 210 

Ford. Ay, ay ; I must bear it. 

Evans. If there be any pody in the house, and in 
the chambers, and in the coffers, and in the presses, 
heaven forgive my sins at the day of judgment ! 

Caius. By gar, nor I too ; there is no bodies. 

Page. Fie, fie. Master Ford ! are you not ashamed ? 
What spirit, what devil suggests this imagination ? I 
would not ha' your distemper in this kind for the 
wealth of Windsor Castle. 



88 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iii 

Ford. 'T is my fault, Master Page ; I suffer for it. 220 

Evans. You suffer for a pad conscience : your wife 
is as honest a omans as I will desires among five 
thousand, and five hundred too. 

Caius. By gar, I see 't is an honest woman. 

Ford. Well, I promised you a dinner. — Come, 
come, walk in the Park. I pray you, pardon me ; 
I will hereafter make known to you why I have done 
this. — Come, wife ; — come, Mistress Page. — I pray 
you, pardon me ; pray heartily, pardon me. 229 

Page. Let 's go in, gentlemen ; but, trust me, we '11 
mock him. I do invite you to-morrow morning to 
my house to breakfast. After, we '11 a-birding to- 
gether ; I have a fine hawk for the bush. Shall it 
be so? 

Ford. Any thing. 

Evans. If there is one, I shall make two in the 
company. 

Caius. If dere be one or two, I shall make-a de 
tird. 

Ford. Pray you, go, Master Page. 240 

Evans. I pray you now, remembrance to-morrow 
on the lousy knave, mine host. 

Caius. Dat is good ; by gar, with all my heart ! 

Evans. A lousy knave, to have his gibes and his 
mockeries ! [Exeunt. 



Scene ivj Merry Wives of Windsor 89 

Scene IV. A Room in Pagers House 
Enter Fenton and Anne Page 

Fenton. I see I cannot get thy father's love ; 
Therefore no more turn me to him, sweet Nan. 

Anne. Alas, how then ? 

Fenton. Why, thou must be thyself. 

He doth object I am too great of birth. 
And that, my state being gall'd with my expense, 
I seek to heal it only by his wealth. 
Besides these, other bars he lays before me, — 
My riots past, my wild societies, — 
And tells me 't is a thing impossible 
I should love thee but as a property. 10 

Anne. May be he tells you true. 

Fenton. No, heaven so speed me in my time to 
come ! 
Albeit I will confess thy father's wealth 
Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne, 
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value 
Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags ; 
And 't is the very riches of thyself 
That now I aim at. 

Anne. Gentle Master Fenton, 

Yet seek my father's love ; still seek it, sir. 
If opportunity and humblest suit 20 

Cannot attain it, why, then, — hark you hither 1 

\_They converse apart. 



90 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iii 

Enter Shallow, Slender, and Mistress Quickly 

Shallow. Break their talk, Mistress Quickly ; my 
kinsman shall speak for himself. 

Slender. I '11 make a shaft or a bolt on 't. 'Slid, 
't is but venturing. 

Shallow. Be not dismayed. 

Slender. No, she shall not dismay me ; I care not 
for that, — but that I am afeard. 

Quickly. Hark ye ; Master Slender would speak a 
word with you. 30 

Anne. I come to him. — \_Aside'\ This is my father's 
choice. 
O, what a world of vile ill-favour 'd faults 
Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year ! 

Quickly. And how does good Master Fenton? 
Pray you, a word with you. 

Shallow. She 's coming ; to her, coz. O boy, 
thou hadst a father ! 

Slender. I had a father, Mistress Anne ; my uncle 
can tell you good jests of him. — Pray you, uncle, 
tell Mistress Anne the jest, how my father stole two 
geese out of a pen, good uncle. 41 

Shallow. Mistress Anne, my cousin loves you. 

Slender. Ay, that I do ; as well as I love any 
woman in Gloucestershire. 

Shallow. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. 

Slender. Ay, that I will, come cut and long-tail, 
under the degree of a squire. 



Scene IV] Merry Wives of Windsor 91 

Shallow. He will make you a hundred and fifty 
pounds jointure. 

Anne. Good Master Shallow, let him woo for 
himself. 51 

Shallow. Marry, I thank you for it ; I thank you 
for that good comfort. — She calls you, coz ; I '11 
leave you. 

Amie. Now, Master Slender, — 

Slender. Now, good Mistress Anne, — 

Anne. What is your will ? 

Slender. My will ! 'od's heartlings, that 's a pretty 
jest indeed ! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank 
heaven ; I am not such a sickly creature, I give 
heaven praise. 61 

Anne. I mean. Master Slender, what would you 
with me ? 

Slender. Truly, for mine own part, I would little 
or nothing with you. Your father and my uncle 
hath made motions. If it be my luck, so ; if not, 
happy man be his dole ! They can tell you how 
things go better than I can. You may ask your 
father ; here he comes. 69 

Enter Page and Mistress Page 

Page. Now, Master Slender! — Love him, daughter 
Anne. — ir,a 

Why, how now ! what does Master Fenton here ? — 
You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house ; 
I told you, sir, my daughter is dispos'd of. 73 



gi Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iii 

Fenton. Nay, Master Page, be not impatient. 

Mrs. Page. Good Master Fenton, come not to my 
child. 

Page. She is no match for you. 

Fenton. Sir, will you hear me ? 

Page. No, good Master Fenton. — 

Come, Master Shallow; — come, son Slender, in. — 
Knowing my mind, you wrong me, Master Fenton. 

\Exeunt Page, Shallow, and Fenton. 

Quickly. Speak to Mistress Page. 80 

Fenton. Good Mistress Page, for that I love your 
daughter 
In such a righteous fashion as I do. 
Perforce, against all checks, rebukes, and manners, 
I must advance the colours of my love. 
And not retire ; let me have your good will. 

Anne. Good mother, do not marry me to yond fool. 

Mrs. Page. I mean it not ; I seek you a better hus- 
band. 

Quickly. That 's my master, master doctor. 

Anne. Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth 
And bowl'd to death with turnips ! 90 

Mrs. Page. Come, trouble not yourself. — Good Mas- 
ter Fenton, 
I will not be your friend nor enemy ; 
My daughter will I question how she loves you. 
And as I find her, so am I affected. 
Till then farewell, sir. She must needs go in ; 
Her father will be angry. 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 93 

Fenton. Farewell, gentle mistress. — Farewell, Nan. 

\Exeunt Mrs. Page and Anne. 

Quickly. This is my doing, now. — Nay, said I, 
will you cast away your child on a fool and a 
physician? Look on Master Fenton. — This is 
my doing. loi 

Fenton. I thank thee ; and I pray thee, once to- 
' night 
Give my sweet Nan this ring. There 's for thy pains. 

Quickly. Now heaven send thee good fortune ! — 
\_Exit Fe7tton.~\ A kind heart he hath ; a woman 
would run through fire and water for such a kind 
heart. But yet I would my master had Mistress 
Anne ; or I would Master Slender had her ; or, in 
sooth, I would Master Fenton had her. I will do 
what I can for them all three, for so I have promised 
and I '11 be as good as my word, — but speciously 
for Master Fenton. Well, I must of another errand 
to Si\ John Falstaff from my two mistresses ; what 
a beast am I to slack it ! \_Fxit. 



Scene V. A Room in the Garter Inn 

Enter Falstaff and Bardolph 

Falstaff. Bardolph, I say, — 
Bardolph. Here, sir. 

Falstaff. Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a 
toast in 't. — \Exit Bardolph^ Have I lived to be 



94 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

carried in a basket, like a barrow of butcher's offal, 
and to be thrown in the Thames ? Well, if I be 
served such another trick, I '11 have my brains ta'en 
out and buttered, and give them to a dog for a new- 
year's gift. The rogues slighted me into the river 
with as little remorse as they would have drowned a 
blind bitch's puppies, fifteen i' the litter ; and you 
may know by my size that I have a kind of alacrity 
in sinking. If the bottom were as deep as hell, I 
should down. I had been drowned but that the 
shore was shelvy and shallow, — a death that I ab- 
hor ; for the water swells a man, and what a thing 
should I have been when I had been swelled ! I 
should have been a mountain of mummy. i8 

Re-enter Bardolph with sack 

Bardolph. Here 's Mistress Quickly, sir, to speak 
with you. 

Falstaff. Come, let me pour in some sack to the 
Thames water ; for my belly 's as cold as if I had 
swallowed snowballs for pills to cool the reins. — 
Call her in. 

Bardolph. Come in, woman ! 

Enter Mistress Quickly 

Quickly. By your leave ; I cry you mercy. Give 
your worship good morrow. 

Falstaff. Take away these chalices. Go brew me 
a pottle of sack finely. 29 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 95 

Bardolph. With eggs, sir ? 

Falstaff. Simple of itself ; I '11 no pullet-sperm in 
my brewage. — [Exit Bardolph.'] How now ! 

Quickly. Marry, sir, I come to your worship from 
Mistress Ford. 

Falstaff. Mistress Ford ! I have had ford enough. 
I was thrown into the ford ; I have my belly full of 
ford. 

Quickly. Alas the day ! good heart, that was not 
her fault. She does so take on with her men ; they 
mistook their erection. 40 

Falstaff. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish 
woman's promise. 

Quickly. Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it would 
yearn your heart to see it. Her husband goes this 
morning a-birding; she desires you once more to 
come to her between eight and nine. I must carry 
her word quickly; she '11 make you amends, I warrant 
you. 

Falstaff. Well, I will visit her. Tell her so, and 
bid her think what a man is ; let her consider his 
frailty, and then judge of my merit. 51 

Quickly. I will tell her. 

Falstaff. Do so. Between nine and ten, sayest 
thou? 

Quickly. Eight and nine, sir. 

Falstaff. Well, be gone ; I will not miss her. 

Quickly. Peace be with you, sir. [Exit. 

Falstaff. I marvel I hear not of Master Brook ; he 



g6 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

sent me word to stay within. I like his money well. 
O, here he comes. 60 

Enter Ford 

Ford. Bless you, sir ! 

Falstaff. Now, Master Brook, you come to know 
what hath passed between me and Ford's wife ? 

Ford. That, indeed, Sir John, is my business. 

Falstaff. Master Brook, I will not lie to you ; I 
was at her house the hour she appointed me. 

Ford. And sped you, sir ? 

Falstaff. Very ill-favouredly. Master Brook. 

Ford. How so, sir ? Did she change her deter- 
mination ? 70 

Falstaff. No, Master Brook, but the peaking Cor- 
nuto her husband. Master Brook, dwelling in a con- 
tinual larum of jealousy, comes me in the instant 
of our encounter, after we had embraced, kissed, 
protested, and, as it were, spoke the prologue of our 
comedy ; and at his heels a rabble of his companions, 
thither provoked and instigated by his distemper, 
and, forsooth, to search his house for his wife's love. 

Ford. What, while you were there ? 

Falstaff. While I was there. 80 

Ford. And did he search for you, and could not 
find you ? 

Falstaff. You shall hear. As good luck would 
have it, comes in one Mistress Page, gives intelli- 
gence of Ford's approach ; and, in her invention and 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 97 

Ford's wife's distraction, they conveyed me into a 
buck-basket. 

Ford. A buck-basket ? 88 

Falstaff. By the Lord, a buck-basket ! rammed me 
in with foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, 
greasy napkins ; that, Master Brook, there was the 
rankest compound of villanous smell that ever 
offended nostril. 

Ford. And how long lay you there ? 

Falstaff. Nay, you shall hear, Master Brook, what 
I have suffered to bring this woman to evil for your 
good. Being thus crammed in the basket, a couple 
of Ford's knaves, his hinds, were called forth by 
their mistress to carry me in the name of foul clothes 
to Datchet-lane. They took me on their shoulders, 100 
met the jealous knave their master in the door, who 
asked them once or twice what they had in their 
basket. I quaked for fear, lest the lunatic knave 
would have searched it, but fate, ordaining he should 
be a cuckold, held his hand. Well ; on went he for 
a search, and away went I for foul clothes. But mark 
the sequel, Master Brook: I suffered the pangs of 
three several deaths ; first, an intolerable fright, to 
be detected with a jealous rotten bell-wether ; next, 
to be compassed, like a good bilbo, in the circum- no 
ference of a peck, hilt to point, heel to head ; and 
then, to be stopped in, like a strong distillation, with 
stinking clothes that fretted in their own grease. 
Think of that, — a man of my kidney, — think of 

MERRY WIVES — 7 



98 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act ill 

that, — that am as subject to heat as butter, — a man 
of continual dissolution and thaw ; it was a miracle 
to scape suffocation. And in the height of this bath, 
when I was more than half stewed in grease, like 
a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, and 
cooled, glowing hot, in that surge, like a horse-shoe ; 
think of that, — hissing hot, — think of that, Master 
Brook. 122 

Ford. In good sadness, sir, I am sorry that for 
my sake you have suffered all this. My suit then 
is desperate ; you '11 undertake her no more ? 

Falstaff. Master Brook, I will be thrown into Etna, 
as I have been into Thames, ere I will leave her thus. 
Her husband is this morning gone a-birding. I have 
received from her another embassy of meeting ; 'twixt 
eight and nine is the hour, Master Brook. 

Fo7'd. 'T is past eight already, sir. 131 

Falstaff. Is it ? I will then address me to my ap- 
pointment. Come to me at your convenient leisure, 
and you shall know how I speed ; and the conclusion 
shall be crowned with your enjoying her. Adieu. 
You shall have her, Master Brook; Master Brook, 
you shall cuckold Ford. \^Exit. 

Ford. Hum ! ha ! is this a vision ? is this a dream ? 
do I sleep? Master Ford, awake ! awake! Master 
Ford ! there 's a hole made in your best coat, Master 
Ford. This 't is to be married ! this 't is to have 
linen and buck-baskets ! Well, I will proclaim my- 
self what I am. I will now take the lecher ; he is at 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 99 

my house ; he cannot scape me, 't is impossible he 
should ; he cannot creep into a halfpenny purse, nor 
into a pepper-box ; but, lest the devil that guides 
him should aid him, I will search impossible places. 
Though what I am I cannot avoid, yet to be what I 
would not shall not make me tame ; if I have horns 
to make one mad, let the proverb go with me, — I '11 
be horn-mad. '[jExi^. 



:Lofc. 




*OUT OF MY DOOR, YOU WITCH ! 



ACT IV 

Scene I. A Street 

Enter Mistress Page, Mistress Quickly, and 
William 

Mrs. Page. Is he at Master Ford's already, 
think'st thou ? 

Quickly. Sure he is by this, or will be presently ; 
but, truly, he is very courageous mad about his 

lOO 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor lOi 

throwing into the water. Mistress Ford desires you 
to come suddenly. 

Mrs. Page. I '11 be with her by and by ; I '11 but 
bring my young man here to school. Look, where 
his master comes ; 't is a playing-day, I see. — 

Enter Sir Hugh Evans 

How now, Sir Hugh ! no school to-day ? to 

Evans. No ; Master Slender is let the boys leave 
to play. 

Quickly. Blessing of his heart ! 

Mrs. Page. Sir Hugh, my husband says my son 
profits nothing in the world at his book. I pray 
you, ask him some questions in his accidence. 

Evans. Come hither, William. Hold up your 
head ; come. 

Mrs, Page. Come on, sirrah. Hold up your head ; 
answer your master, be not afraid. 20 

Evans. William, how many numbers is in nouns ? 

William. Two. 

Quickly. Truly, I thought there had been one 
number more, because they say, 'od 's nouns. 

Evans. Peace your tattlings ! — What is ' fair, ' 
William ? 

William. Pulcher. 

Quickly. Polecats ! there are fairer things than 
polecats, sure. 

Evans. You are a very simplicity oman ; I pray 
you, peace. — What is ' lapis,' Wilham ? 31 



I02 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iv 

Williafn. A stone. 

Evans. And what is ' a stone,' William ? 

William. A pebble. 

Evans. No, it is ' lapis ; ' I pray you, remember 
in your prain. 

William. Lapis. 

Evans. That is a good William. What is he, 
William, that does lend articles ? 39 

William. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, 
and be thus declined, Singulariter, nominativo, hie, 
haec, hoc. 

Evans. Nominativo, hig, hag, hog ; pray you, mark : 
genitivo, hujus. Well, what is your accusative case ? 

William. Accusativo, hinc. 

Evans. I pray you, have your remembrance, child ; 
accusativo, hung, hang, hog. 

Quickly. Hang-hog is Latin for bacon, I warrant 
you. 49 

Evaiis. Leave your prabbles, oman. — What is 
the focative case, William ? 

William. O ! — vocativo, O ! — 

Evans. Remember, William ; focative is caret. 

Quickly. And that 's a good root. 

Evans. Oman, forbear. 

Mrs. Page. Peace ! 

Evans. What is your genitive case plural, William ? 

William. Genitive case ! 

Evans. Ay. 

William. Genitive, — horum, harum, horum. 60 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 103 

Quickly. Vengeance of Jenny's case ! fie on her ! 
never name her, child, if she be a whore. 

Evans. For shame, oman. 

Quickly. You do ill to teach the child such words. 
— He teaches him to hick and to hack, which they '11 
do fast enough of themselves, and to call horum. — 
Fie upon you ! 

Evans, Oman, art thou lunatics ? hast thou no un- 
derstandings for thy cases and the numbers of the 
genders ? Thou art as foolish Christian creatures as 
I would desires. 71 

Mrs. Page. Prithee, hold thy peace. 

Evans. Show me now, William, some declensions 
of your pronouns. 

William, Forsooth, I have forgot. 

Evans. It is qui, quae, quod ; if you forget your 
quies, your quaes, and your quods, you must be 
preeches. Go your ways and play ; go. 

Mrs. Page. He is a better scholar than I thought 
he was. 80 

Evans. He is a good sprag memory. Farewell, 
Mistress Page. 

Mrs. Page. Adieu, good Sir Hugh. — \Exit Sir 
Hugh.'l Get you home, boy. — Come, we stay too 
long. [Exeunt. 



104 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iv 

Scene II. A Room in Ford^s House 
Enter Falstaff and Mistress Ford 

Falstaff, Mistress Ford, your sorrow hath eaten 
up my sufferance. I see you are obsequious in your 
love, and I profess requital to a hair's breadth ; not 
only, Mistress Ford, in the simple office of love, but 
in all the accoutrement, complement, and ceremony 
of it. But are you sure of your husband now ? 

Mrs, FoM. He 's a-birding, sweet Sir John. 

Mrs. Page. \WithUi\ What, ho, gossip Ford ! what, 
ho ! 9 

Mrs. Ford. Step into the chamber, Sir John. 

\Exit F'alstaff. 

Enter Mistress Page 

Mrs. Page. How now, sweetheart ! who 's at home 
besides yourself ? 

Mrs. Ford. Why, none but mine own people. 

Mrs. Page. Indeed ! 

Mrs. Ford. No, certainly. — \Aside to her\ Speak 
louder. 

Mrs. Page. Truly, I am so glad you have nobody 
here. 

Mrs. Ford. Why ? 19 

Mrs. Page. Why, woman, your husband is in his 
old lunes again ; he so takes on yonder with my hus- 
band, so rails against all married mankind, so curses 
all Eve's daughters, of what complexion soever, and 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 105 

so buffets himself on the forehead, crying, ' Peer 
out, peer out ! ' that any madness I ever yet beheld 
seemed but tameness, civility, and patience, to this 
his distemper he is in now. I am glad the fat 
knight is not here. 

Mrs, Ford. Why, does he talk of him ? 29 

Mf-s. Page. Of none but him, and swears he was 
carried out, the last time he searched for him, in a 
basket, — protests to my husband he is now here, 
and hath drawn him and the rest of their company 
from their sport, to make another experiment of his 
suspicion. But I am glad the knight is not here ; 
now he shall see his own foolery. 

Mrs. Ford. How near is he. Mistress Page ? 

M7's. Page. Hard by, at street end ; he will be 
here anon. 

Mrs. Ford. I am undone ! The knight is here. 40 

Mrs. Page. Why then you are utterly shamed, and 
he 's but a dead man. What a woman are you ! — 
Away with him, away with him ! better shame than 
murther. 

Mrs. Ford. Which way should he go ? how should 

I bestow him? Shall I put him into the basket 

again ? 

Re-enter Falstaff 

Falstaff. No, I '11 come no more i' the basket. 
May I not go out ere he come ? 49 

Mrs. Page. Alas, three of Master Ford's brothers 
watch the door with pistols, that none shall issue 



io6 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iv 

out; otherwise you might slip away ere he came. 
But what make you here ? 

Falstaff. What shall I do? — I '11 creep up into 
the chimney. 

Mrs. Ford. There they always use to discharge 
their birding-pieces. Creep into the kiln-hole. 

Falstaff. Where is it ? 58 

M7's. Ford. He will seek there, on my word. 
Neither press, coffer, chest, trunk, well, vault, but 
he hath an abstract for the remembrance of such 
places, and goes to them by his note ; there is no 
hiding you in the house. 

Falstaff. I '11 go out then. 

Mrs. Page. If you go out in your own semblance, 
you die, Sir John. Unless you go out disguised — 

Afrs. Ford. How might we disguise him ? 

Mrs. Page. Alas the day, I know not ! There is 
no woman's gown big enough for him ; otherwise he 
might put on a hat, a muffler, and a kerchief, and so 
escape. 71 

Falstaff. Good hearts, devise something ; any ex- 
tremity rather than a mischief. 

M7's. Ford. My maid's aunt, the fat woman of 
Brentford, has a gown above. 

Mrs. Page. On my word, it will serve him, she 's 
as big as he is ; and there 's her thrummed hat and 
muffler too. — Run up, Sir John. 

Mrs. Ford. Go, go, sweet Sir John ; Mistress Page 
and I will look some linen for your head. 80 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 107 

Mrs. Page. Quick, quick ! we '11 come dress you 
straight ; put on the gown the while. \_Exit Falstaff, 

Mrs. Ford. I would my husband would meet him 
in this shape ! he cannot abide the old woman of 
Brentford ; he swears she 's a witch, forbade her my 
house, and hath threatened to beat her. 

Mrs. Page. Heaven guide him to thy husband's 
cudgel, and the devil guide his cudgel afterwards ! 

Mrs. Ford. But is my husband coming ? 89 

Mrs. Page. Ay, in good sadness, is he, and talks 
of the basket too, howsoever he hath had intelli- 
gence. 

Mrs. Ford. We '11 try that ; for I '11 appoint my 
men to carry the basket again, to meet him at the 
door with it, as they did last time. 

Mrs. Page. Nay, but he '11 be here presently ; let 's 
go dress him like the witch of Brentford. 97 

Mrs. Ford. I '11 first direct my men what they 
shall do with the basket. Go up ; I '11 bring linen 
for him straight. \^Exit. 

Mrs. Page. Hang hira, dishonest varlet I we can- 
not misuse him enough. 

We '11 leave a proof, by that which we will do, 

Wives may be merry, and yet honest too. 

We do not act that often jest and laugh ; 

' T is old, but true, still swine eat all the draff. \_Exit. 

Re-enter Mistress Ford with two Servants 
Mrs. Ford. Go, sirs, take the basket again on 



io8 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iv 

your shoulders. Your master is hard at door ; if he 
bid you set it down, obey him. Quickly, dispatch. 

\_Exit. 

1 Servant. Come, come, take it up. no 

2 Servant. Pray heaven it be not full of knight 
again. 

I Servant. I hope not ; I had as lief bear so much 
lead. 
Enter Ford, Page, Shallow, Caius, and Sir Hugh 

Evans 

Ford. Ay, but if it prove true. Master Page, have 
you any way then to unfool me again ? — Set down 
the basket, villains ! — Somebody call my wife. — 
Youth in a basket ! — O you panderly rascals ! 
there 's a knot, a ging, a pack, a conspiracy against 
me ; now shall the devil be shamed. — What, wife, 
I say ! Come, come forth ! Behold what honest 
clothes you send forth to bleaching ! 122 

Page. Why, this passes ! Master Ford, you are not 
to go loose any longer ; you must be pinioned. 

Evans. Why, this is lunatics ! this is mad as a 
mad dog! 

Shallow. Indeed, Master Ford, this is not well, 
indeed. 

Ford. So say I too, sir. — 

Re-enter Mistress Ford 

Come hither. Mistress Ford, — Mistress Ford, the 
honest woman, the modest wife, the virtuous crea- 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor 109 

ture, that hath the jealous fool to her husband ! — I 
suspect without cause, mistress, do I ? 133 

Mrs. Ford. Heaven be my witness you do, if you 
suspect me in any dishonesty. 

Ford. Well said, brazen-face ! hold it out. — 
Come forth, sirrah ! \Pitlliiig clothes out of the basket. 

Page. This passes ! 

Mrs. Ford. Are you not ashamed ? let the clothes 
alone. 140 

Ford. I shall find you anon. 

Evans. 'T is unreasonable ! Will you take up 
your wife's clothes ? Come away. 

Ford. Empty the basket, I say ! 

Mrs. Ford. Why, man, why? 

Ford. Master Page, as I am a man, there was one 
conveyed out of my house yesterday in this basket ; 
why may not he be there again ? In my house I am 
sure he is ; my intelligence is true, my jealousy is 
reasonable. — Pluck me out all the linen. 150 

Mrs. Ford. If you find a man there, he shall die a 
flea's death. 

Page. Here 's no man. 

Shallow. By my fidelity, this is not well. Master 
Ford ; this wrongs you. 

Evans. Master Ford, you must pray, and not fol- 
low the imaginations of your own heart ; this is 
jealousies. 

Ford. Well, he 's not here I seek for. 

Page. No, nor nowhere else but in your brain. 160 



no Merry Wives of Windsor [Act IV 

Ford. Help to search my house this one time. If 
I find not what I seek, show no colour for my ex- 
tremity, let me forever be your table-sport ; let them 
say of me, ' As jealous as Ford, that searched a hol- 
low walnut for his wife's leman.' Satisfy me once 
more ; once more search with me. 

Mrs. Ford. What, ho, Mistress Page ! come you 
and the old woman down ; my husband will come 
into the chamber. 

Ford. Old woman! what old woman 's that? 170 

Mrs. Ford. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brent- 
ford. 

Ford. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean ! 
Have I not forbid her my house? She comes of 
errands, does she ? We are simple men ; we do not 
know what 's brought to pass under the profession 
of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, 
by the figure, and such daubery as this is, beyond our 
element ; we know nothing. — Come down, you witch, 
you hag, you ; come down, I say ! 180 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, good, sweet husband ! — Good 
gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman. 

Re-enter Falstaff in woman^s clothes, and Mistress 

Page 

Mrs. Page. Come, Mother Prat ; come, give me 
your hand. 

Ford. I '11 prat her. — \_B eating him'] Out of my 
door, you witch, you hag, you baggage, you polecat. 



Scene II] Merry Wives of Windsor ii i 

you ronyon ! out, out ! I '11 conjure you, I '11 for- 
tune-tell you. [JSxi^ Falstaff. 

Mrs. Page. Are you not ashamed ? I think you 
have killed the poor woman. 190 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, he will do it. — 'T is a goodly 
credit for you. 

Ford. Hang her, witch ! 

Evans. By yea and no, I think the oman is a witch 
indeed. I like not when a oman has a great peard ; 
I spy a great peard under her muffler. 

Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen ? I beseech 
you, follow ; see but the issue of my jealousy. If I 
cry out thus upon no trail, never trust me when I 
open again. 200 

Page. Let 's obey his humour a little further. 
Come, gentlemen. 

[Exeunt Ford, Page, Shallow, Caius, and Evans. 

Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully. 

M7's. Ford. Nay, by the mass, that he did not ; he 
beat him most un pitifully, methought. 

Mrs. Page. I '11 have the cudgel hallowed and 
hung o'er the altar ; it hath done meritorious service. 

Mrs. Ford. What think you ? may we, with the 
warrant of womanhood and the witness of a good 
conscience, pursue him with any further revenge ? 210 

Mrs. Page, The spirit of wantonness is, sure, 
scared out of him ; if the devil have him not in fee- 
simple, with fine and recover}^, he will never, I think, 
in the way of waste, attempt us again. 



112 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act IV 

Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our husbands how we 
have served him ? 

Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means ; if it be but to 
scrape the figures out of your husband's brains. If 
they can find in their hearts the poor un virtuous fat 
knight shall be any further afflicted, we two will still 
be the ministers. 221 

Mrs. Ford. I '11 warrant they '11 have him publicly 
shamed ; and methinks there would be no period to 
the jest, should he not be publicly shamed. 

Mrs. Page. Come, to the forge with it then ; shape 
it. I would not have things cool. \Exeunt. 

Scene III. A Room in the Garter Inn 
Enter Host and Bardolph 

Bardolph. Sir, the Germans desire to have three of 
your horses ; the duke himself will be to-morrow at 
court, and they are going to meet him. 

Host. What duke should that be comes so se- 
cretly? I hear not of him in the court. — Let me 
speak with the gentlemen ; they speak English ? 

Baj'dolph. Ay, sir ; I '11 call them to you. 

Host. They shall have my horses, but I '11 make 
them pay ; I '11 sauce them. They have had my 
house a week at command ; I have turned away my 
other guests. They must come off ; I '11 sauce them. 
Come. [Exeunt. 



Scene IV] Merry Wives of Windsor 113 



Scene IV. A Room hi Ford^s House 

Enter Page, Ford, Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, 
and Sir Hugh Evans 

Evans. 'T is one of the pest discretions of a oman 
as ever I did look upon. 

Page. And did he send you both these letters at 
an instant ? 

Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour. 

Ford. Pardon me, wife. Henceforth do what thou 
wilt ; 
I rather will suspect the sun with cold 
Than thee with wantonness. Now doth thy honour 

stand. 
In him that was of late an heretic. 
As firm as faith. 

Page. 'T is well, 't is well ; no more : 10 

Be not as extreme in submission 
As in offence. 

But let our plot go forward ; let our wives 
Yet once again, to make us public sport. 
Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow, 
Where we may take him and disgrace him for it. 

Ford. There is no better way than that they spoke 
of. 

Page. How ? to send him word they '11 meet him 
in the park at midnight ? Fie, fie ! he '11 never come. 

Evans. You say he has been thrown in the rivers 20 

MERRY WIVES — 8 



114 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iv 

and has been grievously peaten as an old oman. 
Methinks there should be terrors in him that he 
should not come ; methinks his flesh is punished, he 
shall have no desires. 24 

Page. So think I too. 

Mrs. Ford. Devise but how you '11 use him when he 
comes, 
And let us two devise to bring him thither. 

Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes that Heme the 
hunter, 
Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest, 
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight, . 30 

Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns ; 
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle, 
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain 
In a most hideous and dreadful manner. 
You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know 
The superstitious idle-headed eld 
Receiv'd and did deliver to our age 
This tale of Heme the hunter for a truth. 

Page. Why, yet there want not many that do fear 
In deep of night to walk by this Heme's oak ; 40 

But what of this ? 

Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device ; 

That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us, 
Disguis'd like Heme, with huge horns on his head. 

Page. Well, let it not be doubted but he '11 come ; 
And in this shape when you have brought him thither, 
What shall be done with him ? what is your plot ? 



Scene IV] Merry Wives of Windsor 115 

Mrs. Page. That likewise have we thought upon, and 
thus : 
Nan Page my daughter, and my little son. 
And three or four more of their growth, we '11 dress 
Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white, 50 
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads. 
And rattles in their hands. Upon a sudden. 
As Falstaff , she, and I, are newly met, 
Let them from forth a saw-pit rush at once 
With some diffused song ; upon their sight, 
We two in great amazedness will fly. 
Then let them all encircle him about. 
And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight, 
And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel. 
In their so sacred paths he dares to tread 60 

In shape profane. 

Mrs. Ford. And till he tell the truth. 

Let the supposed fairies pinch him sound 
And burn him with their tapers. 

Mrs. Page. The truth being known. 

We '11 all present ourselves, dishorn the spirit, 
And mock him home to Windsor. 

Ford. The children must 

Be practis'd well to this or they '11 ne'er do 't. 

Evans. I will teach the children their behav- 
iours ; and I will be like a jack-a-napes also, to burn 
the knight with my taber. 

Ford. That will be excellent. I '11 go and buy 
them vizards. 71 



ii6 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iv 

Mrs. Page. My Nan shall be the queen of all the 
fairies, 
Finely attired in a robe of white. 

Page. That silk will I go buy. — \Aside\ And in that 
time 
Shall Master Slender steal my Nan away 
And marry her at Eton. — Go send to Falstaff straight. 

Ford. Nay, I '11 to him again in name of Brook. 
He '11 tell me all his purpose ; sure, he '11 come. 

Mrs. Page. Fear not you that. Go get us properties 
And tricking for our fairies. 8o 

Evans. Let us about it ; it is admirable pleasures 
and fery honest knaveries. 

[^Exeunt Page, Ford, and Evans. 

Mrs. Page. Go, Mistress Ford, 
Send quickly to Sir John, to know his mind. — 

\Exit Mrs. Ford. 
I '11 to the doctor ; he hath my good will, 
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page. 
That Slender, though well landed, is an idiot ; 
And he my husband best of all affects. 
The doctor is well money'd, and his friends 
Potent at court ; he, none but he, shall have her, 90 

Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her. 

\Exit. 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 117 

Scene V. A Room in the Garter Inn 
Enter Host and Simple 

Host. What wouldst thou have, boor ? what, thick- 
skin ? speak, breathe, discuss ; brief, short, quick, 
snap. 

Simple. Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John 
Falstaff from Master Slender. 

Host. There 's his chamber, his house, his castle, 
his standing-bed and truckle-bed ; 't is painted about 
with the story of the Prodigal, fresh and new. Go 
knock and call ; he '11 speak like an Anthropopha- 
ginian unto thee ; knock, I say. 10 

Simple. There 's an old woman, a fat woman, 
gone up into-his chamber. I '11 be so bold as stay, 
sir, till she come down ; I come to speak with 
her, indeed. 

Host. Ha ! a fat woman ! the knight may be 
robbed ; I '11 call. — Bully knight ! bully Sir John ! 
speak from thy lungs military ; art thou there ? it is 
thine host, thine Ephesian, calls. 

Falstaff. \Above'\ How now, mine host ! 19 

Host. Here 's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the com- 
ing down of thy fat woman. Let her descend, bully, 
let her descend ; my chambers are honourable ; fie ! 

privacy ? fie ! 

Enter Falstaff ' 

Falstaff. There was, mine host, an old fat woman 
even now with me, but she 's gone. 



Ii8 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act IV 

Siinple. Pray you, sir, was 't not the wise woman 
of Brentford ? 

Fahtaff. Ay, marry, was it, mussel-shell ; what 
would you with her ? 29 

Simple. My master, sir, Master Slender, sent to 
her, seeing her go thorough the streets, to know, sir, 
whether one Nym, sir, that beguiled him of a chain, 
had the chain or no. 

Falstaff. I spake with the old woman about it. 

Simple. And what says she, I pray, sir ? 

Falstaff. Marry, she says that the very same man 
that beguiled Master Slender of his chain cozened 
him of it. 

Si?nple. I would I could have spoken with the 
woman herself ; I had other things to have spoken 
with her too from him. 41 

Falstaff. What are they ? let us know. 

Host. Ay, come ; quick. 

Simple. I may not conceal them, sir. 

Host. Conceal them, or thou diest. 

Simple. Why, sir, they were nothing but about 
Mistress Anne Page ; to know if it were my master's 
fortune to have her or no. 

Falstaff. 'T is, 't is his fortune. 

Simple. What, sir ? ' 50 

Falstaff. To have her, — or no. Go ; say the 
woman told me so. 

Simple. May I be bold to say so, sir ? 

Falstaff. Ay, sir ; like w^ho more bold ? 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 119 

Simple. I thank your worship. I shall make my 
master glad with these tidings. \^Exit. 

Host. Thou art clerkly, thou art clerkly, Sir John. 
Was there a wise woman with thee ? 

Falstaff. Ay, that there was, mine host ; one that 
hath taught me more wit than ever I learned before 
in my life, — and I paid nothing for it, neither, but 
was paid for my learning. 62 

Enter Bardolph 

Bardolph. Out, alas, sir ! cozenage, mere cozen- 
age ! 

Host. Where be my horses ? speak well of them, 
varletto. 

Bardolph. Run away with the cozeners ; for so 
soon as I came beyond Eton, they threw me off from 
behind one of them, in a slough of mire, and set spurs 
and away, like three German devils, three Doctor 
Faustuses. 71 

Host. They are gone but to meet the duke, 
villain. Do not say they be fled ; Germans are 
honest men. "'^ ' 

Enter Sir Hugh Evans 

Evans. Where is mine host ? 

Host. What is the matter, sir ? 

Evans. Have a care of your entertainments ; 
there is a friend of mine come to town, tells me 
there is three cozen-germans that has cozened all the 
hosts of Readins, of Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of 



I20 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act iv 

horses and money. I tell you for good will, look 
you ; you are wise and full of gibes and vlouting- 
stogs, and 't is not convenient you should be coz- 
ened. Fare you well. [Exit. 

Enter Doctor Caius 

Caius. Vere is mine host de Jarteer ? 

Host. Here, master doctor, in perplexity and 
doubtful dilemma. 87 

Caius. I cannot tell vat is dat, but it is tell-a me 
dat you make grand preparation for a duke de Jam- 
any ; by my trot, dere is no duke dat the court is 
know to come. I tell you for good vill ; adieu. \_Exit. 

Host. Hue and cry, villain, go ! — Assist me, 
knight. I am undone ! — Fly, run, hue and cry, 
villain ! I am undone ! [Exeunt Host and Bardolph. 

Falstaff. I would all the world might be cozened ; 
for I have been cozened and beaten too. If it should 
come to the ear of the court, how I have been trans- 
formed and how my transformation hath been washed 
and cudgelled, they would melt me out of my fat 
drop by drop and liquor fishermen's boots with me. 
I warrant they would whip me with their fine wits till 
I were as crest-fallen as a dried pear. I never pros- 
pered since I foreswore myself at primero. Well, if 
my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I 
would repent. — 105 

Enter Mistress Quickly 

Now, whence come you ? 



Scene VI] Merry Wives of Windsor 121 

Quickly. From the two parties, forsooth. 

Falstaff. The devil take one party and his dam the 
other ! and so they shall be both bestowed. I have 
suffered more for their sakes, more than the villan- 
ous inconstancy of man's disposition is able to bear. 

Quickly. And have not they suffered ? Yes, I war- 
rant ; speciously one of them. Mistress Ford, good 
heart, is beaten black and blue, that you cannot see 
a white spot about her. 115 

Falstaff. What tellest thou me of black and blue ? 
I was beaten myself into all the colours of the rain- 
bow, and I was like to be apprehended for the witch 
of Brentford ; but that my admirable dexterity of 
wit, my counterfeiting the action of an old woman, 
delivered me, the knave constable had set me i' the 
stocks, i' the common stocks, for a witch. 122 

Quickly. Sir, let me speak with you in your cham- 
ber ; you shall hear how things go, and, I warrant, 
to your content. Here is a letter will say somewhat. 
Good hearts, what ado here is to bring you together ! 
Sure, one of you does not serve heaven well, that 
you are so crossed. 

Falstaff. Come up into my chamber. \_Exeunt. 

Scene VI. Another Room in the Gaj'ter Inn 

Enter Fenton and Host 

Host. Master Fenton, talk not to me ; my mind is 
heavy : I will give over all. 



122 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act IV 

Fenton. Yet hear me speak. Assist me in my pur- 
pose, 
And, as I am a gentleman, I '11 give thee 
A hundred pound in gold more than your loss. 

Host. I will hear you, Master Fenton ; and I will 
at the least keep your counsel. 

Fenton. From time to time I have acquainted you 
With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page, 
Who mutually hath answer'd my affection, lo 

So far forth as herself might be her chooser, 
Even to my wish. I have a letter from her 
Of such contents as you will wonder at, 
The mirth whereof so larded with my matter 
That neither singly can be manifested 
Without the show of both. — Fat Falstaff 
Hath a great scene ; the image of the jest 
I '11 show you here at large. Hark, good mine host. 
To-night at Heme's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one. 
Must my sweet Nan present the Fairy Queen, — 20 
The purpose why is here, — in which disguise. 
While other jests are something rank on foot, 
Her father hath commanded her to slip 
Away with Slender, and with him at Eton 
Immediately to marry ; she hath consented. 
Now, sir. 

Her mother, ever strong against that match 
And firm for Doctor Caius, hath appointed 
That he shall likewise shuffle her away, 
While other sports are tasking of their minds, 30 



Scene VI] Merry Wives of Windsor 123 

And at the deanery, where a priest attends, 

Straight marry her ; to this her mother's plot 

She seemingly obedient likewise hath 

Made promise to the doctor. — Now, thus it rests : 

H«cr father means she shall be all in white. 

And in that habit, when Slender sees his time 

To take her by the hand and bid her go, 

She shall go with him ; her mother hath intended, 

The better to denote her to the doctor, — 

For they must all be mask'd and vizarded, — 40 

That quaint in green she shall be loose enrob'd, 

With ribands pendent, flaring 'bout her head ; 

And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe, 

To pinch her by the hand, and, on that token, 

The maid hath given consent to go with him. 

Host. Which means she to deceive, father or mother ? 

Fenton. Both, my good host, to go along with me ; 
And here it rests, — that you '11 procure the vicar 
To stay for me at church 'twixt twelve and one, 
And, in the lawful name of marrying, 50 

To give our hearts united ceremony. 

Host. Well, husband your device ; I '11 to the vicar. 
Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest. 

Fenton. So shall I evermore be bound to thee ; 
Besides, I '11 make a present recompense. \Exeimt. 




Herne's Oak 



ACT V 

Scene I. A Room in the Garter Inn 
Enter Falstaff and Mistress Quickly 

Falstaff. Prithee, no more prattling ; go. I '11 
hold. — This is the third time ; I hope good luck lies 
in odd numbers. — Away ! go, — They say there is 
divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, 
or death. — Away ! 

Quickly. I '11 provide you a chain, and I '11 do 
what I can to get you a pair of horns. 

124 



Scene I] Merry Wives of Windsor 125 

Falstaff. Away, I say ; time wears. Hold up your 
head, and mince. — \Exit Mrs. Quickly. 

Enter Ford 

Hqjv now, Master Brook ! Master Brook, the matter 
will be known to-night, or never. Be you in the 
Park about midnight, at Heme's oak, and you shall 
see wonders. 13 

Ford. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you 
told me you had appointed ? 

Falstaff. I went to her. Master Brook, as you see, 
like a poor old man ; but I came from her. Master 
Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave 
Ford, her husband, hath the finest mad devil of 
jealousy in him, Master Brook, that ever governed 
frenzy. I will tell you. He beat me grievously in 
the shape of a woman ; for in the shape of man, 
Master Brook, I fear not Goliah with a weaver's 
beam, because I know also life is a shuttle. I am in 
haste, go along with me ; I '11 tell you all, Master 
Brook. Since I plucked geese, played truant, and 
whipped top, I knew not what 't was to be beaten till 
lately. Follow me ; I '11 tell you strange things of this 
knave Ford, on whom to-night I will be revenged, 
and I will deliver his wife into your hand. — Follow. 30 
Strange things in hand, Master Brook 1 Follow. 

\Exeunt. 



126 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act v 

Scene II. Windsor Park 
Enter Page, Shallow, and Slender 

Page. Come, come ; we '11 couch i' the castle-ditch 
till we see the light of our fairies. — Remember, son 
Slender, my daughter. 

Slender. Ay, forsooth ; I have spoke with her and 
we have a nay-word how to know one another. I 
come to her in white, and cry ' mum ; ' she cries 
' budget,' and by that we know one another. 

Shallow. That 's good too ; but what needs either 
your ' mum ' or her ' budget ? ' the white will deci- 
pher her well enough. — It hath struck ten o'clock. lo 

Page. The night is dark ; light and spirits will 
become it well. Heaven prosper our sport ! No 
man means evil but the devil, and we shall know 
him by his horns. Let 's away ; follow me. [^Exeunt 

Scene III. A Street leading to the Park 

Enter Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, and Doctor 

Caius 

Mrs. Page. Master doctor, my daughter is in 
green ; when you see your time, take her by the 
hand, away with her to the deanery, and dispatch it 
quickly. Go before into the Park ; we two must go 
together. 

Caius. I know vat I have to do. Adieu. 



Scene IV] Merry Wives of Windsor 127 

Mrs. Page. Fare you well, sir. — [^Exit Cams.] 
My husband will not rejoice so much at the abuse of 
Falstaff as he will chafe at the doctor's marrying my 
daughter. But 't is no matter ; better a little chiding 
than a great deal of heart-break. n 

Mrs. Ford. Where is Nan now and her troop of 
fairies, and the Welsh devil Hugh ? 

Mrs. Page. They are all couched in a pit hard by 
Heme's oak, with obscured lights, which, at the very 
instant of Falstaff 's and our meeting, they will at 
once display to the night. 

Mrs. Ford. That cannot choose but amaze him. 

Mrs. Page. If he be not amazed, he will be 
mocked ; if he be amazed, he will every way be 
mocked. 21 

Mrs. Ford. We '11 betray him finely. 

Mrs. Page. Against such lewdsters and their lechery 
Those that betray them do no treachery. 

Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on. To the oak, to the 
oak ! \Exeunt. 



Scene IV. Windsor Park 

Enter Sir Hugh Evans disgtnsed, with others as Fairies 

Evans. Trib, trib, fairies, come ; and remember 
your parts. Be pold, I pray you ; follow me into the 
pit, and when I give the watch-ords do as I pid you. 
Come, come ; trib, trib. [Exeunt. 



128 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act v 

Scene V. Another Pai^t of the Park 

Enter Falstaff disguised as Hei'ne 

Falstaff. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve ; 
the minute draws on. Now, the hot-blooded gods 
assist me ! Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for 
thy Europa ; love set on thy horns. O powerful 
love ! that, in some respects, makes a beast a man, 
in some other a man a beast. You were also, Jupi- 
ter, a swan for the love of Leda. O omnipotent 
love ! how near the god drew to the complexion of a 
goose ! A fault done first in the form of a beast. O 
Jove, a beastly fault ! And then another fault in the lo 
semblance of a fowl ; think on 't, Jove, a foul fault ! 
— When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men 
do ? For me, I am here a Windsor stag ; and the 
fattest, I think, i' the forest. Send me a cool rut- 
time, Jove ! — Who comes here ? my doe ? 

Enter Mistress Ford and Mistress Page 

Mrs. Ford. Sir John ! art thou there, my deer ? 
my male deer ? 

Falstaff. My doe with the black scut ! — Let the 
sky rain potatoes ; let it thunder to the tune of 
' Green Sleeves,' hail kissing-comfits and snow erin- 
goes ; let there come a tempest of provocation, I 
will shelter me here, 22 

Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweet- 
heart. 



Scene vj Merry Wives of Windsor 1^9 

Falstaff. Divide me like a bribed buck, each a 
haunch ; I will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders 
for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath 
your husbands. Am I a woodman, ha ? Speak I Hke 
Heme the hunter ? — Why, now is Cupid a child of 
conscience ; he makes restitution. As I am a true 
spirit, welcome ! \Noise within. 

Mrs. Page. Alas, what noise ? 32 

Mrs. Ford. Heaven forgive our sins ! 

Falstaff. What should this be ? 

Mrs. Ford. ) ^ » 

Mrs. Page. \ ^^^' ^^^^ ^ ^^ '''^^ ''^' 

Falstaff. I think the devil will not have me 
damned, lest the oil that 's in me should set hell on 
fire ; he would never else cross me thus. 

Enter Sir Hugh Evans, as a Satyr ; another person^ as 
Hobgoblin; Anne Page, as the Fairy Qiteen attended 
by her Brother and others as Fairies, with tapers 

Anne. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, 
You moonshine revellers, and shades of night, 40 

You orphan heirs of fixed destiny. 
Attend your office and your quality. — 
Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes. 

Hobgoblin. Elves, list your names ; silence, you airy 
toys ! — 
Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap. 
Where fires thou find'st unrak'd and hearths unswept, 

MERRY WIVES — 9 



ijo Merry Wives of Windsor [Act V 

There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry ; 
Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery. 

Falstaff. They are fairies ; he that speaks to them 
shall die. 
I '11 wink and couch. No man their works must eye. 

\_Lies down upon his face. 

Evans. Where 's Bede ? — Go you, and where you 
find a maid 51 

That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said, 
Raise up the organs of her fantasy, 
Sleep she as sound as careless infancy ; 
But those as sleep and think not on their sins, 
Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and 
shins. 

Amte. About, about! 
Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out. 
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every room. 
That it may stand till the perpetual doom, 60 

In state as wholesome as in state 't is fit. 
Worthy the owner, and the owner it. 
The several chairs of order look you scour 
With juice of balm and every precious flower ; 
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest. 
With loyal blazon, evermore be blest ! 
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing, 
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring. 
The expressure that it bears, green let it be, 
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see ; 70 

And ^ Honi soit qui mal y pense ' write 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 131 

In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white, 
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery. 
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee. 
Fairies use flowers for their charactery. 
Away ! disperse ! but till 't is one o'clock, 
Our dance of custom round about the oak 
Of Heme the hunter, let us not forget. 

Evans. Pray you, lock hand in hand ; yourselves in 
order set ; 
And twenty glovz-worms shall our lanterns be, 80 

To guide our measure round about the tree. — 
But, stay ! I smell a man of middle-earth. 

Falstaff. Heavens defend me from that Welsh 
fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of cheese ! 

Hobgobli7i. Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in 
thy birth. 

Afine. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end. 
If he be chaste, the flame will back descend 
And turn him to no pain ; but if he start, 
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. 

Hobgoblin. A trial, come ! 

Evans. Come, will this wood take fire ? 

\They burn him with their tapers. 

Falstaff. Oh, oh, oh ! 91 

Anne. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire I — 
About him, fairies, sing a scornful rhyme ; 
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time. 



132 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act v 

Song 

Fie on sinful fantasy f 

Fie on lust and luxury ! 

Lust is but a bloody fire, 

Kindled with unchaste desire, 

Fed in heart, whose flames aspire 

As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher. 100 

Pinch him, f alleles, mutually ; 

Pinch him for his villany ; 

Pinch hijn, and burn him, and turn him about. 

Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out. 

[During this song they pinch Falstaff. Doc- 
tor Caius comes one way and steals away 
a fairy in green ; Slender another way and 
takes off a fairy in white; and Fenton 
comes and steals away Anne Page. A 
noise of hunting is heard within. All the 
Fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off his 
buclz's head, and 7'ises. 

Enter Page, Ford, Mistress Page, and Mistress 

Ford 

Page. Nay, do not fly ; I think we have watch 'd you 
now. 
Will none but Heme the hunter serve your turn ? 

Mrs. Page. I pray you, come, hold up the jest no 
higher. — 
Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives ? — 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 133 

See you these, husband ? do not these fair yokes 
Become the forest better than the town ? no 

Ford. Now, sir, who 's a cuckold now ? — Master 
Brook, Falstaff 's a knave, a cuckoldly knave, — here 
are his horns. Master Brook, — and. Master Brook, 
he hath enjoyed nothing of Ford's but his buck- 
basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money, 
which must be paid to Master Brook ; his horses are 
arrested for it. Master Brook. 

Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck ; we 
could never meet. I will never take you for my love 
again, but I will always count you my deer. 120 

Falstaff. I do begin to perceive that I am made 
an ass. 

Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are 
extant. 

Falstaff. And these are not fairies ? I was three 
or four times in the thought they were not fairies ; 
and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden sur- 
prise of my powers, drove the grossness of the fop- 
pery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of 
all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See 
now how wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent, when 't is 
upon ill employment ! 132 

Evans. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave 
your desires, and fairies will not pinse you. 

Ford. Well said, fairy Hugh. 

Evans. And leave your jealousies too, I pray 
you. 



134 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act V 

Ford. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou 
art able to woo her in good English. 139 

Falstaff. Have I laid my brain in the sun and 
dried it, that it wants matter to prevent so gross 
o'erreaching as this ? Am I ridden with a Welsh 
goat too ? shall I have a coxcomb of frize ? 'T is 
time I w^ere choked with a piece of toasted cheese. 

Evans. Seese is not good to give putter ; your 
pelly is all putter. 

Falstaff. Seese and putter ! have I lived to stand 
at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English ? 
This is enough to be the decay of lust and late- 
walking through the realm. 150 

Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, though 
we would have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the 
head and shoulders and have given ourselves with- 
out scruple to hell, that ever the devil could have 
made you our delight ? 

Ford. What, a hodge-pudding ? a bag of flax ? 

Mrs. Page. A puffed man ? 

Page. Old, cold, v/ithered, and of intolerable entrails 

Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan ? 

Page. And as poor as Job ? 160 

Ford. And as wicked as his wife ? 

Evans. And given to fornications, and to taverns 
and sack and wine and metheglins, and to drink- 
ings and swearings and starings, pribbles and 
prabbles ? 

Falstaff. Well, I am your theme ; you have the 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor , 135 

start of me. I am dejected ; I am not able to answer 
the Welsh flannel. Ignorance itself is a plummet 
o'er me ; use me as you will. 169 

Ford. Marry, sir, we '11 bring you to Windsor, to 
one Master Brook, that you have cozened of money, 
to whom you should have been a pander ; over and 
above that you have suffered, I think to repay that 
money will be a biting affliction. 

Page. Yet be cheerful, knight ; thou shalt eat a 
posset to-night at my house, where I will desire thee 
to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee. Tell 
her Master Slender hath married her daughter. 

Mrs. Page. [Aside'] Doctors doubt that ; if Anne 

Page be my daughter, she is, by this, Doctor Caius' 

wife. 181 

Enter Slender 

Slender. Whoa, ho ! ho, father Page ! 

Page. Son, how now ! how now, son ! have you 
dispatched ? 

Slender. Dispatched ! I '11 make the best in 
Gloucestershire know on 't ; would I were hanged, 
la, else ! 

Page. Of what, son ? 

Slender. I came yonder at Eton to marry Mistress 
Anne Page, and she 's a great lubberly boy. If it had 
not been i' the church, I would have swinged him, or 
he should have swdnged me. If I did not think it 
had been Anne Page, would I might never stir ! — 
and 't is a postmaster's boy. 194 



136 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act v 

Page. Upon my life, then, you took the wrong. 

Slender. What need you tell me that ? I think so, 
when I took a boy for a girl. If I had been mar- 
ried to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I 
would not have had him. 199 

Page. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell 
you how you should know my daughter by her gar- 
ments ? 

Slender. I went to her in white, and cried ' mum,' 
and she cried ' budget,' as Anne and I had ap- 
pointed ; and yet it was not Anne, but a postmas- 
ter's boy. 

Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry ; I knew 
of your purpose, turned my daughter into green, 
and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the dean- 
ery, and there married. 210 

Enter Caius 

Caius. Vere is Mistress Page ? By gar, I am 
cozened ! I ha' married un garcon, a boy ; un pay- 
san, by gar, a boy I it is not Anne Page ; by gar, I 
am cozened ! 

Mrs. Page. Why, did you take her in green ? 

Cains. Ay, by gar, and 't is a boy ; by gar, I '11 
raise all Windsor ! \Exit 

Ford. This is strange. Who hath got the right 
Anne ? 

Page. My heart misgives me. Here comes Mas- 
ter Fenton. — 221 



Scene V] Merry Wives of Windsor 137 

Enter Fenton and Anne Page 

How now, Master Fenton ! 

Anne. Pardon, good father ! — good my mother, 
pardon ! 

Page. Now, mistress, how chance you went not 
with Master Slender ? 

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master doctor, 
maid ? 

Fenton. You do amaze her ; hear the truth of it. 
You would have married her most shamefully. 
Where there was no proportion held in love. 
The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, 230 

Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us. 
The offence is holy that she hath committed ; 
And this deceit loses the name of craft, 
Of disobedience, or unduteous title. 
Since therein she doth evitate and shun 
A thousand irreligious cursed hours 
Which forced marriage would have brought upon her. 

Ford. Stand not amaz'd ; here is no remedy. 
In love the heavens themselves do guide the state ; 
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate. 

Falstaff. I am glad, though you have ta'en a 
special stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath 
glanced. 243 

Page. Well, what remedy ? — Fenton, heaven give 
thee joy ! 
What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac'd. 



138 Merry Wives of Windsor [Act V 

Falsiaff. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer 

are chas'd. 
Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further. — Master 
Fenton, 
Heaven give you many, many merry days ! — 
Good husband, let us every one go home 
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire, — 
Sir John and all. 

Ford. Let it be so. — Sir John, 

To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word ; 
For he to-night shall lie with Mistress Ford. 

\^Exeunt. 



NOTES 




Datchet Mead 



NOTES 



Introduction 



The Metre of the Play. — It should be understood at the 
outset that metre, or the mechanism of verse, is something alto- 
gether distinct from the music of verse. The one is matter of rule, 
the other of taste and feeling. Music is not an absolute necessity 
of verse ; the metrical form is a necessity, being that which con- 
stitutes the verse. 

The plays of Shakespeare (with the exception of rhymed pas- 
sages, and of occasional songs and interludes) are all in unrhymed 
or blank verse ; and the normal form of this blank verse is illus- 
trated by iii. 4. i of the present play : " I see I cannot get thy 
father's love." 

This line, it will be seen, consists of ten syllables, with the even 
syllables (2d, 4th, 6th, 8th, and loth) accented, the odd syllables 
(ist, 3d, etc.) being unaccented. Theoretically, it is made up of 
five y^^^ of two syllables each, with the accent on the second sylla- 
ble. Such a foot is called an iambtis (plural, iambuses^ or the Latin 
iambi), and the form of verse is called iaj?tbic, 

141 



142 Notes 

This fundamental law of Shakespeare's verse is subject to certain 
modifications, the most important of which are as follows : — 

1. After the tenth syllable an unaccented syllable (or even two 
such syllables) may be added, forming what is sometimes called a 
female line; as in iii. 4. 15: "Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of 
more value." The rhythm is complete with the first syllable of 
value, the second being an extra eleventh syllable. 

2. The accent in any part of the verse may be shifted from an 
even to an odd syllable; as in iii. 4. 21: "Cannot attain it, why 
then, — hark you hither!" and 79: "Knowing my mind, you 
wrong me. Master Fenton." In both lines (female lines) the 
accent is shifted from the second to the first syllable. This 
change occurs very rarely in the tenth syllable, and seldom in the 
fourth ; and it is not allowable in two successive accented syllables. 

3. An extra unaccented syllable may occur in any part of the 
line ; as in iii. 4. 5, 13, and ^'j. In 5 the second syllable of being 
is superfluous ; in 13 the last syllable of albeit ; and in 87 the 
word a. 

4. Any unaccented syllable, occurring in an even place immedi- 
ately before or after an even syllable which is properly accented, is 
reckoned as accented for the purposes of the verse ; as, for instance, 
in iii. 4. 9 and 10. In 9 the last syllable of impossible, and in 10 
that oi property, are metrically equivalent to accented syllables. 

5. In many instances in Shakespeare words must be lengthened 
in order to fill out the rhythm : — 

{a) In a large class of words in which e or i is followed by an- 
other vowel, the e or i is made a separate syllable ; as ocean, opin- 
ion, soldier, patience, partial, marriage, etc. For instance, in this 
play, iii. 4. 74 (" Nay, Master Page, be not impatient ") appears to 
have only nine syllables, but impatient is a quadrisyllable ; and 
the same is true of submission in iv. 4. 1 1 : "Be not as extreme in 
submission." This lengthening occurs most frequently at the end 
of the line. 

{¥) Many monosyllables ending in r, re^ rs, res, preceded by a 



Notes 143 



long vowel or diphthong, are often made dissyllables ; zs fare (see 
on iii. 4. g'j'), fear, dear, fire, hair, hour, more, your, etc. If 
the word is repeated in a verse it is often both monosyllable and 
dissyllable ; as iny. C. iii. I. 172 : "As fire drives out fire, so pity, 
pity," where the first fire is a dissyllable, 

(j:') Words containing / or r, preceded by another consonant, 
are often pronounced as if a vowel came between or after the con- 
sonants ; as in T. of S. ii. I. 158 : "While she did call me rascal 
fiddler" [fiddl(e)er] ; All's Well, iii. 5. 43 : "If you will tarry, 
holy pilgrim" [pilg(e)rim] ; C. of E. v. I. 360: "These are the 
parents of these children" (childeren, the original form of the 
word) ; W. T. iv. 4. 76 : "Grace and remembrance [rememb(e)- 
rance] be to you both ! " etc. 

id) Monosyllabic exclamations {ay, O, yea, nay, hail, etc.) and 
monosyllables otherwise emphasized are similarly lengthened ; 
also certain longer words ; as safety (trisyllable) in Ham. i. 3. 21 ; 
business (trisyllable, as originally pronounced) in J. C. iv. i. 22: 
" To groan and sweat under the business " (so in several other 
passages); and other words mentioned in the notes to the plays 
in which they occur. 

6. Words are also contracted for metrical reasons, like plurals 
and possessives ending in a sibilant, as balaitce, horse (for horses 
and horse's), princess, sense, marriage (plural and possessive), 
etc. ' So with many adjectives in the superlative (like cold'st, 
sternest, kindest, secrefst, etc.), and certain other words. 

7. The accent of words is also varied in many instances for met- 
rical reasons. Thus we find both revenue and revenue in the first 
scene of the M. N. D. (line 6 and 158), extreme (see on iv. 4. ii) 
and extreme, cdntrary and contrdry, pursue and pursue, etc. 

These instances of variable accent must not be confounded with 
those in which words were uniformly accented differently in the 
time of Shakespeare; like aspect, impdrtune, sepulchre (verb), 
per sever (never persevere), per sever a^ice, rheumatic, etc. 

8. Alexandrines, or verses of twelve syllables, with six accents. 



144 Notes 

occur here and there in the plays. They must not be confounded 
with female lines with two extra syllables (see on i above) or with 
other lines in which two extra unaccented syllables may occur. 

9. Incomplete verses, of one or more syllables, are scattered 
through the plays. See iii. 4. 11, 76, 90, 96, etc. 

10. Doggerel measure is used in the very earliest comedies 
(Z. Z. Z. and C. of E. in particular) in the mouths of comic char- 
acters, but nowhere else in those plays, and never anywhere in 
plays written after 1598. There is none in the present play. 

11. Rhyme occurs frequently in the early plays, but diminishes 
with comparative regularity from that period until the latest. 
Thus, in Z. Z. Z. there are about 1 100 rhyming verses (about one- 
third of the whole number), in M. N'. D. about 900, in Rick. II. 
and R. and J. about 500 each, while in Cor. and A. and C. there 
are only about 40 each, in Temp, only two, and in W. T. none 
at all, except in the chorus introducing act iv. Songs, interludes, 
and other matter not in ten-syllable measure are not included in 
this enumeration. In the present play (which is mostly in prose), 
out of about 275 ten-syllable verses, only sixty-five are in rhyme. 

Alternate rhymes are found only in the plays written before 1599 
or 1600. In M. of V. there are only four lines at the end of iii. 2. 
In Much Ado and A. Y. L. we also find a few lines, but none at 
all in subsequent plays. 

Rhy?7ied couplets, or "rhyme-tags," are often found at the end of 
scenes ; as in 3 of the 23 scenes of the present play. In Ham. 
14 out of 20 scenes, and in Macb. 21 out of 28, have such "tags ; " 
but in the latest plays they are not so frequent. In Temp., for 
instance, there is but one, and in W. T. none. 

12. In this edition of Shakespeare, the final -ed of past tenses 
and participles in verse is printed -d when the word is to be pro- 
nounced in the ordinary way ; as in gaWd (iii. 4. 5) and dispos'd 
(iii. 4. 73). But when the metre requires that the -ed be made 
a separate syllable, the e is retained; as in sealed (iii. 4. 16), 
where the word is a dissyllable. The only variation from this rule 



Notes 145 



is in verbs like cry, die, sue, etc., the -ed of which is very rarely, if 
ever, made a separate syllable. 

Shakespeare's Use of Verse and Prose in the Plays. — 
This is a subject to which the critics have given very little attention, 
but it is an interesting study. In this play we find scenes entirely 
in verse or in prose, and in which the two are mixed. In general, 
we may say that verse is used for what is distinctly poetical, and 
prose for what is not poetical. The distinction, however, is not 
so clearly marked in the earlier as in the later plays. The second 
scene of M. of V., for instance, is in prose, because Portia and. 
Nerissa are talking about the suitors in a familiar and playful 
way ; but in T. G. of V., where Julia and Lucetta are discussing 
the suitors of the former in much the same fashion, the scene is in 
verse. Dowden, commenting on Rich. II., remarks : " Had Shake- 
speare written the play a few years later, we may be certain that 
the gardener and his servants (iii. 4) would not have uttered 
stately .speeches in verse, but would have spoken homely prose, 
and that humour would have mingled with the pathos of the scene. 
The same remark may be made with reference to the subsequent 
scene (v. 5) in which his groom visits the dethroned king in the 
Tower." Comic characters and those in low life generally speak 
in prose in the later plays, as Dowden intimates, but in the very 
earliest ones doggerel verse is much used instead. See on 10 
above. 

The change from prose to verse is well illustrated in the third 
scene of M. of V. It begins with plain prosaic talk about a busi- 
ness matter ; but when Antonio enters, it rises at once to the higher 
level of poetry. The sight of Antonio reminds Shylock of his hatred 
of the Merchant, and the passion expresses itself in verse, the ver- 
nacular tongue of poetry. 

The reasons for the choice of prose or verse are not always so 

clear as in this instance. We are seldom puzzled to explain the 

prose, but not unfrequently we meet with verse where we might 

expect prose. As Professor Corson remarks (^Introduction to Shake- 

MERRY WIVES — lO 



146 



Notes 



spear e, 1889), "Shakespeare adopted verse as the general tenor of 
his language, and therefore expressed much in verse that is within 
the capabilities of prose ; in other words, his verse constantly en- 
croaches upon the domain of prose, but 'his prose can never be said 
to encroach upon the domain of verse." If in rare instances we 
think we find exceptions to this latter statement, and prose actually 
seems to usurp the place of verse, I believe that careful study of the 
passage will prove the supposed exception to be apparent rather 
than real. 

Some Books for Teachers and Students. — A few out of the 
many books that might be commended to the teacher and the criti- 
cal student are the following: Halliwell-Phillipps's Outlines of the 
Life of Shakespeare (7th ed. 1887) ; Sidney Lee's Life of Shake- 
speare (1898; for ordinary students the abridged ed. of 1 899 is 
preferable) ; Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon (3d ed. 1902) ; Lit- 
tledale's ed. of Dyce's Glossary (1902) ; Bartlett's Concordance to 
Shakespeare (1895) '•> Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar (1873) ; 
Furness's " New Variorum " ed. of the plays (encyclopaedic and 
exhaustive) ; Dowden's Shakspere : His Mind and Art (American 
ed. 1 881) ; Hudson's Life, Art, and Characters of Shakespeare 
(revised ed. 1882) ; Mrs. Jameson's Characteristics of Women 
(several eds.; some with the title Shakespeare Lleroines^; Ten 
Brink's Five Lectures on Shakespeare (1895); Boas's Shakespeare 
and LLis Predecessors (1895); Dyer's Folk-lore of Shakespeare 
(American ed. 1884); Gervinus's Shakespeare Com77tentaries {^mtv- 
nett's translation, 1875); Wordsworth's Shakespeare'' s Knowledge 
of the Bible (3d ed. 1880); Elson's Shakespeare iit Music (1901); 
Rolfe's Life of Shakespeare (1904). 

Some of the above books will be useful to all readers who are 
interested in special subjects or in general criticism of Shakespeare. 
Among those which are better suited to the needs of ordinary 
readers and students, the following may be mentioned : Mabie's 
William Shakespeare, Poet, Dramatist, and Man (1900); Dow- 
den's Shakspere Primer (1877; small but invaluable); Rolfe's 



Scene I] Notes 147 

Shakespeare the Boy (1896 ; treating of the home and school life, 
the games and sports, the manners, customs, and folk-lore of the 
poet's time) ; Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome (for young stu- 
dents who may need information on mythological allusions not 
explained in the notes). 

H. Snowden Ward's Shakespeare's Town and Times (2d ed. 
1902) and John Leyland's Shakespeare Country (2d ed. 1903) are 
copiously illustrated books (yet inexpensive) which may be par- 
ticularly commended for school libraries. 

Abbreviations in the Notes. — The abbreviations of the names 
of Shakespeare's plays will be readily understood ; as T. N. for 
Twelfth Night, Cor. for Coriolanus, 3 Hen. VI. for The Third 
Paj't of King Henry the Sixth, etc. P. P. refers to The Passionate 
Pilgrim ; V. and A. to Venus and Adonis ; L. C. to Lover'' s Com- 
plaint ; and Sonn. to the Sonnets. 

Other abbreviations that hardly need explanation are Cf {confer, 
compare), Fol. (following). Id. (fde^n, the same), and Prol. (pro- 
logue). The numbers of the lines in the references (except for the 
present play) are those of the " Globe " edition (the cheapest and 
best edition of Shakespeare in one compact volume), which is now 
generally accepted as the standard for line-numbers in works of ref- 
erence (Schmidt's Lexicon, Abbott's Grammar, Dowden's Primer^ 
the publications of the New Shakspere Society, etc.). 



ACT I 

Scene I. — i. Sir Hugh. The title Sir was formerly applied to 
priests and curates in general. " Dominus, the academical title of 
a bachelor of arts, was usually rendered by Sir in English at the 
universities ; therefore, as most clerical persons had taken that first 
degree, it became usual to style them Sir'''' (Nares). Cf. "Sir 
Topas " in T. N. iv. 2. 2, etc. Halliwell-Phillipps quotes the Reg- 
ister of Burials at Cheltenham : " 1574, August xxxi, Sir John Evans, 
curate of Cheltenham, buried." 



148 Notes [Act I 

2. A Star-chamber matter. Steevens quotes Jonson, Magnetic 
Lady, iii. 4 : — 

" There is a court above, of the Star-chamber, 
To punish routs and riots." 

See also Sir John Harrington's Epigrams, 1618 : — 

" No marvel men of such a sumptuous dyet 
Were brought into the Star-Chamber for a ryot." 

6. CorajTi, This word and armigero (the ablative case of armi- 
ger, bearer of arms, or esquire) occur in the form for attestations 
vi^hich Slender had seen ; wherein his cousin's name would thus 
appear : " Coram me Roberto Shallow armigero," etc. Slender also 
confuses the word with Quorum (Clarke). 

7. Custalormn. Probably a corruption of custos rotulorum, 
keeper of the rolls. Raiolorum seems also to have been suggested 
by rotulorum. Farmer conjectured that Slender says " and cus- 
tos,''^ and that Shallow adds "Ay, and rotulorum too; " but the 
old reading, with its muddling of the Latin terms, is in keeping 
with the characters. 

12. That I do, etc. Farmer conjectured "we" for // but Shal- 
low speaks for " his successors gone before him "as well as himself. 

16. Luces. Pikes. The fish figured in the coat-of-arms of the 
Lucy family, and there is quite certainly a hit here at Sir Thomas 
Lucy of Charlecote, associated with the tradition of the poet's 
youthful poaching exploits. Evans takes the word to refer to an- 
other animal, which " signifies love," Boswell tells us, " because it 
does not desert man in distress, but rather sticks more close to 
him in his adversity." 

22. The luce is the fresh fish, etc. An inexplicable passage. 
Farmer transfers " the salt fish," etc., to Evans, and says : " Shal- 
low had said just before that the coat is an old one ; and now that 
it is the luce, the fresh fish. No, replies the parson, it cannot be 
old and fresh too — the salt fish is an old coat." 

24. Quarter. A term in heraldry for combining the arms of 



Scene I] Notes 1 49 

another family with one's own by placing them in one of the four 
compartments of the shield. This, as Shallow intimates, was often 
donff by marriage. 

26. Marring. There is an obvious play on marrying ; as in 
A, W. ii. 3. 315 : "A young man married is a man that 's marr'd." 

28. PyW lady. The folios print " per-lady." They do not make 
Evans's " brogue " consistent throughout, and the modern editors 
geneially have not attempted to do it. Probably, as Capell says 
of Fluellen in Hen. V., '•' the poet thought it sufficient to mark his 
diction a little, and in some places only." 

33. Compremises. Changed by Pope to " compromises," but the 
blunder is probably intentional. 

35. The council. That is, " the court of 6'^<2r-^>^«;;z^^r, composed 
chiefly of the king's council sitting in Camera stellata, which took 
cognizance of atrocious riots" (Blackstbne). Cf. 2 above. 

39. Vizaments. That is, advisements ( = consideration), a com- 
mon word then, though not used by S. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 
13: "Tempring the passion with advizement slow," etc. 

46. George. The folios have " Thomas " here, but George in ii. 
I. 146, 154, and V. 5. 207. The correction is due to Theobald. 

47. Mistress Anne Page. Mistress was the title of unmarried 
women down to the beginning of the 1 8th century. A MS. dated 
1 716 refers to " Mistress Elizabeth Seignoret, spinster." De Foe 
uses the term in this way in The Fortunes of Moll Flanders, 1722. 

48. Speaks small. Cf. M. N. D. i. 2. 52: "you may speak as 
small as you will," etc. 

54. Motion. Move, plan. Cf. 212 below. 

55. Fribbles and prabbles. Fribbles is a word of the Welshman's 
own coining. Y ox prabbles (= brabbles, quarrels, as in T. N.\. I. 
68: "In private brabble," etc.), cf. Fluellen's "prawls and prab- 
bles" in ^^;2. F. iv. 8. 69. 

57. Did her grandsire, etc. The folios give this speech and the 
next but one to Slender, but the context clearly favours Capell's 
transfer of them to Shallow, and the emendation is generally 



150 Notes [Act I 

adopted. Verplanck, however, remarks : " though they suit Shal- 
low very well, yet it seems a more natural touch of humour to make 
Slender, so negatively indifferent to all other matters, struck with 
admiration at the legacy." 

63. Possibilities. Halliwell-Phillipps takes this to be = " pos- 
sessions." A MS. in Dulwich College (of about the year 1610) 
reads : " if we geete the fathers good will first, then may we bolder 
spake to the datter, for my possebeletis is abel to manteyne her." 
In the present passage, however, the word may refer to what she is 
likely to receive from her father. 

88. Fallow. Pale yellow ; the only instance of this sense in S. 
He uses the adjective (= untilled) again in Hen. V. v. 2. 44. 

89. On Cotsall. That is, on the Cotswold downs in Gloucester- 
shire, celebrated for coursing, for which their fine turf fitted them, 
and also for other rural sports. The allusion is not in the first 
sketch of the play, and is one of the little points indicating that 
it was not revised until after the accession of James, in the begin- 
ning of whose reign the Cotswold games were revived. Cf. 
Rich. II. ii. 3. 9 and 2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 23. 

92. Fault. Explained by Malone and Schmidt as = misfortune, 
bad luck ; as perhaps in iii. 3. 220 below. Schmidt compares Per. 
iv. 2. 79. 

113. But not kissed your keeper'' s daughter ? Some of the critics 
suppose this to be a quotation from an old ballad. Sir Walter 
Scott, in Kenilworth, suggests that it was part of the charge made 
against S. by Sir Thomas Lucy. 

119. In counsel. Kept secret ; with possibly a play on counsel = 
secrecy. Malone quotes Howel's Proverbial Sentences : " Mum is 
counsell, viz. silence." 

121. Worts? "The ancient name of all the cabbage kind" 
(Steevens). Cf. the modern colewort. Baret, in his Alvearie, 
1580, defines tvorts as "all kind of hearbes that serve for the 
potte." 

124, Cony-catching. Thieving, cheating. Cf. i. 3. 32 below. 



Scene I] Notes 151 

and T. of S. v. i. 102: "Take heed lest you be cony-catched in 
this business." Robert Greene pubHshed a pamphlet exposing the 
" Fmuds and Tricks of Coney-catchers and Couzeners." 

125. They carried me . . . my pockets. This is not found in the 
folio, but was supplied by Malone from the ist quarto. That it 
belongs here is evident from 151 below. 

128. You Banbury cheese! A hit at the thinness of Slender, 
Banbury cheese being proverbially thin. Steevens quotes Jack 
Drum's Entertainment, 1601 : "Put off your cloathes, and you are 
like a Banbury cheese — nothing but paring ; " and Heywood, 
Epigrams : — 

" I never saw Banbury cheese thick enough, 
But I have oft seen Essex cheese quick enough." 

Camden, in his Britannia, speaks of Banbury as " nunc autem con- 
ficiendo caseo notissimum." Holland, in his translation, 1610, 
renders this : " Now the fame of this towne is for zeale, cheese, and 
cakes." There is a story that Holland wrote " ale " instead of 
" zeale," and that Camden, happening to see it as the sheet was 
going through the press, and thinking the expression too light, 
made the change ; but Camden himself contradicted this and said 
that " zeale " was inserted by the compositor or printer. 

130. Mephostophilus. The Mephistopheles of the legend of 
Faust, to which there is another allusion in iv. 5. 70 below. There 
are contemporaneous examples of the use of the word as a term 
of abuse. 

132. Pauca,pauca! That \%, pauca verba (few words), as in 
no above. Cf. Hen. V. ii. i. %i (Pistol's speech) : "and, pauca ; 
there 's enough." Slice is probably a slang verb = cut (either in 
the sense of " cut and run," be off, as Clarke explains, or of cutting 
with a sword, as others make it) ; but Schmidt takes it to be a 
noun, and another hit at the thin Slender. 

That 'j my humour. The word humour was worn threadbare in 
the fashionable talk of the time, as is evident from many allusions 



152 Notes [Act I 

and satirical hits in contemporary literature. Steevens quotes the 
following epigram from Humours Ordinarie, 1607 : — 

" Aske Humours what a feather he doth weare, 
It is his humour (by the Lord) he '11 sweare ; 
Or what he doth with such a horse-taile locke, 
Or why upon a whore he spends his stocke, — 
He hath a humour doth determine so : 
Why in the stop-throte fashion he doth goe, 
With scarfe about his necke, hat without band, — 
It is his humour. Sweet Sir, understand. 
What cause his purse is so extreme distrest 
That oftentimes is scarcely penny-blest ; 
Only a humour. If you question, why 
His tongue is ne'er unfurnish'd with a lye, — 
It is his humour too he doth protest : 
Or why with sergeants he is so opprest. 
That like to ghosts they haunt him ev'rie day ; 
A rascal humour doth refuse to pay. 
Object why bootes and spurres are still in season, 
His humour answers, humour is his reason. 
If you perceive his wits in wetting shrunke, 
It Cometh of a humour to be drunke. 
When you behold his lookes pale, thin, and poore, 
The occasion is, his humour and a whoore : 
And every thing that he doth undertake. 
It is a veine, for senseless humour's sake." 

149. The tevil and his tarn ! We have several allusions to " the 
devil's dam " in S. Cf. iv. 5. 108 below. 

150. It is affectations. Puttenham, in his Art of English Poesie, 
1589, gives it as an example of " pleonasmus," or " too full speech " 
— " as if one should say, I heard it with mine eares, and saw it with 
mine eyes, as if a man could heare with his heeles, or see with his 
nose." Some of the critics have taken the trouble to point out that 
it is a Scriptural expression. 

154. Great chamber. Hall, saloon. Cf. M. N. D. iii. i. 58; 



Scene I] Notes 153 

" Leave a casement of the great chamber window, where we play, 
open, and the moon may shine in ; " and R. and J. i. 5. 14 : "You 
are looked for . . . in the great chamber." 

155. Mill- sixpences. Old English coiri, first milled, or coined, 
in 1561. The groat was fourpence ; and making seven groats in 
sixpe7ices is of course an intentional blunder. 

Edward shovel-boards were the broad shillings of Edward VI., 
which were generally used in playing the game of shovel-board or 
shove-board. Cf 2 Hen. 1 V. ii. 4. 206 : " Quoit him down . . . 
like a shove-groat shilling." Nares remarks that the wisdom of 
Slender is shown by his paying "two shillings and twopence" for 
a s?nooth or well-worn shilling ; but it is possible that these old 
shovel-boards commanded a premium on account of being in demand 
for the game. We find allusions to their being carefully kept for 
this purpose. An old shovel-board was long preserved at the Falcon 
inn at Stratford (I believe it is the one now shown in the house 
at New Place), which tradition says was used by S. himself. 

157. Yead. An old contraction of Yedward (see i Hen. IV. 
i. 2. 149) = Edward. 

161. Latten bilbo. Latten was a soft alloy of copper and zinc; 
and bilbo was a name applied to a sword, from Bilboa in Spain, a 
place famous for its blades. Cf. iii. 5. no below: "like a good 
bilbo." Latten bilbo is a hit at Slender's cowardice, implying that 
he was as weak and edgeless as a blade of latten ; with possibly the 
added idea that he was as thin as a sword-blade. 

162. In thy labras. Literally, in thy lips; an expression like 
"in thy teeth," " in thy face," etc. The ist quarto reads here: — 

" Pistol. Sir lohn, and Maister mine, I combat craue 
Of this same laten bilbo. I do retort the lie 
Euan in thy gorge, thy gorge, thy gorge." 

Labras is a corruption of labios, the Spanish for lips; perhaps sug- 
gested hy palabras, for which see Much Ado, iii. 5. 18. 

165. Be avised. Be advised = listen to reason, Cf. i. 4. 100 
below. 



54 



Notes [Act I 



1 66. Marry trap. Johnson says : " When a man was caught in 
his own stratagem, I suppose the exclamation of insult was marry, 
trap ! " Nares remarks that it is " apparently a kind of proverbial 
exclamation, as much as to say, ' By Mary, you are caught ! ' . . . 
but the phrase wants further illustration." No other instance of it 
has been pointed out, and the meaning can be only guessed at. 
Marry was originally a mode of swearing by the Virgin Mary, but 
this had doubtless come to be forgotten in the time of S. 

Nut-hook y^SA "a term of reproach for a catch-pole'''' (Johnson). 
Cf. 2 Hen. IV. Y. 4. S: "Nuthook, nuthook, you lie! " Steevens 
makes if you run the nuthook'' s humour on me — "if you say I am 
a thief; " that is, as a constable might. 

172. Scarlet and John. "The names of two of Robin Hood's 
men ; but the humour consists in the allusion to Bardolph's red 
face" (Warburton). Cf. the ballad of Robin Hood's Delight: — 

" But I will tell you of Will Scarlet, 
Little John and Robin Hood." 

177. Fap. A cant term for drunk. Some have attempted to 
derive it from the Latin vappa, and have assumed that Slender 
recognized it as Latin ; but the origin of the word is uncertain. 
That Slender should take Bardolph's fantastic dialect for Latin is a 
humorous touch which the dullest of critics ought to appreciate. 

178. Conclusions passed the careers. This bit of boozy rhodo- 
montade has been " Greek " to the commentators, as it was Latin 
to Slender, and they have worried much over the interpretation of 
it. Johnson says it "means that the common bounds of good behav- 
iour are overpassed,^' which is very like Bardolph ! To pass the 
career, according to Douce, was, like running a career, a techni- 
cal term for " galloping a horse violently backwards and forwards, 
stopping him suddenly at the end of the career^ Malone and 
Schmidt think that Bardolph means to say, " and so in the end he 
reeled about like a horse passing a career." Clarke suggests that 
the idea is, " and their words ran high, at full gallop." Slender did 



Scene I] Notes 155 

not understand it ; and Daniel says " it was not meant to be under- 
stood by him or anybody else." 

197. Book of Songs and Sonnets. "He probably means the 
Poems of Lord Surrey and others, which were very popular in the 
age of Queen Ehzabeth. They were printed in 1567 with this 
title : ' Songes and Sonnettes, written by the Right Honourable Lord 
Henry Howard, late Earle of Surrey, and others.' Slender laments 
that he has not this fashionable book about him, supposing it might 
assist him in paying his addresses to Anne Page" (Malone). 

199. The Book of Riddles was another popular book. Reed says 
it is enumerated with others in The English Courtier, and Country 
Gentleman, 1586. Halliwell-Phillipps gives a facsimile of the' 
title-page of one edition, which reads thus : " The [ Booke of ] 
Meery. | Riddles. ] Together with proper Que- | stions, and witty 
Prouerbs to | make pleasant pastime, | No lesse vsefull than be- 
hoouefull I for any yong man or child, to know if | he bee quick- 
witted, or no. I London, | Printed by T. C. for Michael Sparke, \ 
dwelling in Greene-Arbor, at the | signe of the blue Bible, | 1629." 
He quotes many of the riddles, and I copy a few of the shortest as 
samples : — 

" The li. Riddle. — My lovers will 

I am content for to fulfill ; 
Within this rime his name is framed ; 
Tell me then how he is named ? 
Solution. — His name is William ; for in the first line is will, and in the 
beginning of the second line is / am, and then put them both together, 
and it maketh William. 

The liv. Riddle. — How many calves tailes will reach to the skye? 
Solution. — One, if it be long enough. 

TheXxv. Riddle. — What is that, round as a ball, 

Longer than Pauls steeple, weather-cocke, and all ? 
Solution. — It is a round bottome of thred when it is unwound. 

The Ixvii. Riddle. — What is that, that goeth thorow the wood, and 
toucheth never a twig ? Solution. — It is the blast of a home, or any 
other noyse." 



156 



Notes [Act I 



For bottom — ball of thread, see T. of S. iv. 3. 138. It will be 
noted that the book was printed by Thomas Creede, who printed 
the 1st quarto of M. W. See p. 10 above. 

203. Michaehnas. As All-hallowmas is almost five weeks after 
Michaelmas, Theobald changed this to " Martlemas." He says : 
"The simplest creatures (nay, even naturals) generally are very 
precise in the knowledge of festivals, and marking how the seasons 
run." This is true ; but the blunder here may nevertheless be 
intentional. 

212. Motiojts. Proposals. Cf. 54 above. 

217. Simple though I stand here. A common phrase of the 
time, of which many examples might be given; as from The 
Returjte from Parnassus, 1606: "I am Stercutio, his father, sir, 
simple as I stand here." 

228. Parcel of the mouth. That is, part of it ; as in the phrase 
"part and parcel." This sense of parcel is common in S. Cf. 
2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 159 : " Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow," 
etc. ; Cor. iv. 5. 231 : "A parcel of their feast." 

249. Conteuipt. The folios have " content ; " but Theobald was 
probably right in seeing here a blundering use of the familiar prov- 
erb. As Steevens points out, we have a similar misuse of contempt 
in Z. L. L. i. i. 191 : "Sir, the contempts thereof [that is, of the 
letter] are as touching me." 

251. Fall. Used by Evans ior fault. 

267. Attends. Waits for; as in Rich. II. i. 3. 116: "Attending 
but the signal to begin," etc. 

271. Beholding. " Beholden " (Pope's reading, but a word never 
used by S.). Cf. M. of V. i. 3. 106, A. Y. L. iv. i. 60, etc. 

282. A master of fence. According to an old MS. in the British 
Museum, there were three degrees in the "noble science of de- 
fence," namely, a master's, a provost's, and a scholar's (Steevens). 
A vejiey (also spelt venezv, venue, etc.) was a thrust or hit in fenc- 
ing. Cf. L. L. L. V. I. 62: "a quick venue of wit." Here the 
dish of stewed prunes was the wager which was to be paid by him 



Scene III] Notes I^y 

who received three hits. Malone quotes Bullokar, English Exposi- 
tor, 1616 : " Venie. A touch in the body at playing with weapons ; " 
and Florio, Hal. Diet. 1598: ^^Tocco. A touch or feeling. Also a 
venie at fence ; a hit." The word came also to mean a bout or 
turn at fencing. 

291. That ''s meat and drink to i7ie. A popular phrase that has 
come down to our day. Cf. A. Y. L.y. \. ii : "It is meat and 
drink to me to see a clown." 

292. Sackerson. A famous bear exhibited at Paris Garden 
(see Hen. VIII. v. 4. 2) in Southwark. Malone quotes an old 
epigram : — 

" Publius, a student of the common law, 
To Paris-garden doth himself withdraw; 
Leaving old Ployden, Dyer, and Broke, alone, 
To see old Harry Hunkes and Sacarson." 

For the bear to get loose was a serious matter. Halliwell-Phillipps 
quotes Machyn's Diary for 1554: "The sam day at after-non was 
a bere-beytyn on the Bankesyde, and ther the grette blynd bere 
broke losse, and in ronnyng away he chakt a servyngman by the 
calff of the lege, and bytt a gret pesse away, . . . that with-in iij 
days after he ded." 

295. Passed. That is, passed description. Cf. iv. 2. 123 below: 
"This passes." See also T. and C. i. 2. 182: "all the rest so 
laughed that it passed." Boswell quotes The Maid of the Mill: — 

" Come, follow me, you country lasses, 
And you shall see such sport as passes." 

300. By cock and pie. A petty oath of the time, occurring 
again in 2 Hen. IV. v. I. I. Its origin is matter of dispute. 

Scene II. — 13. Seese. The folios have " cheese ; " corrected by 
Dyce. See on i. i. 28 above. Cf. v. 5. 145 below. 

Scene III. — 2. Bully-rook ? A favourite epithet with mine 
host, and, as used by him, equivalent to plain bully. It was some- 



158 



Notes [Act I 



times a term of reproach (="a hectoring, cheating sharper," 
as an old dictionary, quoted by Douce, defines it), and was often 
spelt " bully-rock," as in some of the modern eds. of S. 

7. / sit at ten pounds a week. My expenses are ten pounds 
a week. Cf. The Man in the Moone, etc., 1609: "they sit at an 
unmerciful rent." 

8. Keisar. Another form of Ccesar, added like Pheezar (a word 
of the host's own coining, perhaps suggested by pheeze, for which 
see T. of S. ind. i. i, and T. and C. ii. 3. 215) for the sake of the 
rhyme. 

9. Efttertain. Take into service ; as in 53 below. Cf. Much 
Ado, i. 3. 60 : " entertained for a perfumer," etc. 

13. Froth and lime. Frothing beer and liming sack, or putting 
lime in it (see I Hen. IV. ii. 4. 137), were tapster's tricks in the 
time of S. Tho. frothing \s, said to have been done by putting soap 
into the bottom of the tankard when the beer was drawn. Cot- 
grave's Wits Interpreter says that the trick can be thwarted if the 
customer will watch his opportunity and rub the inside of the 
tankard with the skin of a red herring. 

20. Hungarian. The reading of the folios. The quartos have 
" Gongarian." Hungarian was a cant term for " a hungry, starved 
fellow." So says Malone, who cites Hall, Satires, iv. 2 : — 

" So sharp and meager that who should them see 
Would sweare they lately came from Hungary."^ 

Steevens quotes, among other illustrations of the word, Dekker, 
News from Hell, 1606: "the lean-jawed Hungarian would not lay 
out a penny pot of sack for himself." 

22. Conceited. Fanciful, ingenious. 

26. At a minim''s rest. The folios have " minutes," but the pre- 
ceding reference to music favours Langton's conjecture of jninim^s, 
which is adopted by many of the editors. Cf. R. and J. ii. 4. 22 : 
*' rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom." 



Scene III] Notes 159 

28. Convey. A cant term for steal. Cf. Rich. II. iv. i. 317, 
Cymb. i. i. 63, etc. 

A fico for the phrase ! That is, a fig for it. Cf. Heii. V. iii. 6. 
60 : " and figo for thy friendship ! " Fico is the Italian, as figo is 
the Spanish, for fig, 

31. Kibes. Chaps or sores in the heel. Cf. Temp. ii. i. 276, 
Ham. V. I. 153, and Lear, i. 5. 9. For cony-catch, see on i. i. 124 
above. 

34. Young ravens must have food. A proverb in Ray's col- 
lection. 

42. Waste. Steevens remarks that the same play upon zvaste 
and waist is found in Hey wood's Epigratns, 1562 : — 

" Where am I least, husband ? quoth he, in the waist ; 
Which Cometh of this, thou art vengeance strait lac'd. 
Where am I biggest, wife ? in the waste, quote she. 
For all is waste in you, as far as I see." 

He might have added that we find it again in Falstaff -s ovi^n mouth, 
in 2 Hen. /F. i. 2. 160 : — 

^* Chief-justice. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. 
Falstaff. I would it were otherwise ; I would my means were greater, 
and my waist slender." 

44. Carves. To carve for a person was considered a mark of 
favour or affection, as is evident from C. of E. ii. 2. 120, etc. ; but 
other allusions to carving in writers of the time show that the word 
also meant certain gestures expressing recognition and favour. 
Dyce quotes Day's He of Gulls, 1606: "Her amorous glances are 
her accusers ; . . . she carves thee at boord, and cannot sleepe for 
dreaming on thee in bedde." White adds, from Overbury, A Very 
Woman : " Her lightnesse gets her to swim at the top of the table, 
where her wrie little finger bewraies carving ; her neighbours at the 
latter end know they are welcome," etc. See also Littleton's Latin- 
English Lexicon, 1675 : " A carver : chironomus ; " " Chironomus : 
one that useth apish motions with his hands ; " " Chironomia : a 



i6o 



Notes 



[Act I 



kind of gesture with the hands, either in dancing, carving of meat, 
or pleading." This is probably the meaning of the word here. 

46. The hardest voice. The most difficult utterance, or expression. 

48. Well . . . ill. The conjecture of the Cambridge editors. 
The folios have " will . . . will ; " and the quartos well, omitting 
what follows. 

50. Anchor. Johnson could not see " what relation the anchor 
has to translation ;^^ but as Malone suggests, Nym probably means 
nothing more than that " the scheme for debauching Ford's wife is 
deep." 

52. Angels. The angel was an English gold coin, worth about 
ten shillings. It took its name from having on one side a figure of 
Michael piercing the dragon. The device is said to have originated 
in Pope Gregory's pun on Angli and Angeli, and it gave rise to 
many puns. See C. of E. iv. 3. 41, Much Ado, ii. 3. 35, M. of V. 
ii. 7. 56, and 2 Hen. IV. i. 2. 187. 




Golden Angel of Queen Elizabeth 

53. Entertain. Take into your service. See on 9 above. 
57. Writ me. The me is the "ethical dative," so called. 
you in ii. i. 221 below. 

60. (Eillades. Amorous glances ; as in Lear, iv. 5. 25 : — 

" She gave strange oeillades and most speaking looks 
To noble Edmund." 

The spelling of the word in the folios is " illiads." 



Cf. 



Scene III] Notes 1 6 1 

62. Then did the sun on dunghill shine. Holt White quotes 
Lyly, Euphues : "The sun shineth upon the dunghill." 
65. Intention. Probably here = intentness, or intensity. 

68. Guiana. The only allusion to the country in S. Sir Walter 
Raleigh had returned in 1596 from his expedition to South America 
and had published glowing accounts of the great wealth of Guiana 
in his book entitled " The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewti- 
ful Empyre of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden Citie 
of Manoa, which the Spanyards call El Dorado," etc. But long 
before this, in 1569, John Hawkins had published the account of 
his voyage to "the Parties of Guynea and the West Indies." 

69. Cheater. Escheator ; an officer of the exchequer, whose duty 
it was to collect forfeitures to the crown. Cheater- was the vulgar 
corruption of the name. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. iii. 

74. Sir Pandarus of Troy. The archetype of pandars and 
pimps. Cf. T. and C. i. i. 48, etc. 

77. Haviour. Equivalent to behaviour, but not a contraction 
of that word. 

78. Tightly. " Cleverly, adroitly " (Malone) ; as in ii 3. 65 
below. Cf. the adjective in A. and C. iv. 4. 15. 

79. Pinnace. A small vessel, chiefly used, according to Rolfs 
Diet, of Commerce, " as a scout for intelligence, and for landing of 
men " (Malone) . 

83. French thrift, etc. " Falstaff says he shall imitate an economy 
then practised in France of making a single page serve in lieu of a 
train of attendants " (Clarke). 

84. Guts I Not so offensive a word in olden times as now. Cf. 
ii. I. 30 below, Ham. iii. 4. 112, etc. 

Gourds were a kind of false dice, probably with a secret cav- 
ity in them, and fullams such as had been loaded. High men 
and low men were cant terms for high and low numbers on dice 
(Malone). Steevens quotes Dekker's Belman of london, where 
among the false dice are mentioned " a bale of fullams " and " a 
bale of gordes, with as many high-men as low-men for passage." 

MERRY WIVES — II 



1 62 Notes [Act I 

86. Tester. Sixpence. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 296, the only other 
instance of the word in S. ; but the verb testern (to give a tester) 
occurs in T. G. of V.\.\. 153. 

92. To Page. The folio has " to Ford " and " to Page " in the 
next line ; corrected by Steevens from the 1st quarto. That the 
latter is right is evident from ii. i. 108 fol. below. 

99. Yellowness is changed by Pope to "jealousies;" but as 
Johnson notes, ^^ yellowness is jealousy." Cf. W. T. ii. 3. 107: "no 
yellow in it." The revolt of mine is apparently Nym's "humour" 
for my revolt ; but the commentators have changed it in various 
ways to make it less fantastical. 

Scene IV. — 4. An old abusing. For this colloquial use of old 
as a mere intensive, cf. Macb. ii. 3. 2 : " old turning of the key ; " 
M. ofV. iv. 2. 15 : " old swearing," etc. 

7. Soon at night. " This very night " (Schmidt) ; as in ii. 2. 
285, 288 below. Cf. M. for M. i. 4. %Z, 2 Hen. IV. v. 5. 96, 
etc. 

A posset, according to Randle Holme, in his Academy ofArmowrie, 
1688 (quoted by Malone in note on Macb. ii. 2. 6), is "hot milk 
poured on ale or sack, having sugar, grated bisket, and eggs, with 
other ingredients, boiled in it, which goes all to a curd." This 
explains why the posset is often spoken of as eaten ; as in v. 5. 175 
below. 

8. At the latter end of a sea-coal fire. " That is, when my master 
is in bed" (Johnson). 

II. Breed-bate. Breeder of dispute or strife. Cf. bate-breeding 
in V. and A. 655: "This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy." 
See also 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 271 : " and breeds no bate with telling 
of discreet stories." 

13. Peevish. Silly, childish; the ordinary if not the only mean- 
ing in S. 

21. Cain-coloured. That is, like the colour of Cain's beard and 
hair in the old pictures; yellowish, or, according to some, reddish. 



Scene IV] Notes 163 

Pope reads " cane-coloured," that is, yellowish like cane, which is 
perhaps favoured by the " kane " (twice) in the qujtrto. 

23. Softly-sprighted. Gentle-spirited. Cf. spright — spirit, in 
V. and A. 181, R. of L. 121, Macb. iv. i, 127, etc. Spirit is often 

a monosyllable in S.; as in M. N. D.\\. i. i, Ham. i. i. 161, etc. 

24. As tall a man of his hands. As able-bodied a man. Cf. 
W. T. V. 2. 178 ; " thou art a tall fellow of thy hands." Tall was 
often = stout, sturdy; as in ii. i. 225 and ii. 2. 10 below. 

26. A warrener. A keeper of a warren, or enclosure for birds 
or beasts, especially rabbits. S. has the word only here, and warren 
only in Much Ado, ii. i. 322 : " a lodge in a warren." 

36. Sheni. Rated, scolded; as in T, N. iv. 2. 112: "I am 
shent for speaking to you," etc. 

40. Doubt. Suspect, fear ; as often. Cf. Ham. i. 2. 256 : " I 
doubt some foul play," etc. 

42. And down, down, etc. " To deceive her master, she sings 
as if at her work" (Sir John Hawkins). 

44. Un boitier vert. The folio has unboyteane vert. Daniel 
reads " une boitine verde," taking the box to be a case for instru- 
ments, etc., too large for the pocket ; but cf. what Caius says in 53. 

49. Horn-mad. Mad as an angry bull ; mostly used of a cuck- 
old. See iii. 5. 151 below, and cf. C <9/25'. ii. i. 57 : — 

*' Dromio of E. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad. 
Adriana. Horn-mad, thou villain ! 

Dromio of E. I mean not cuckold-mad ; 

But, sure, he is stark mad." 

50. Mafoi, etc. Printed thus in the folio : " maifoy, il fait for 
ehando, le man voi a le Court la grand affaires.^'' 

57. Jack Rugby. Alluding to the contemptuous use of /<2:ri / as 
in 104 below. Cf. i Hen. IV. v. 4. 143 : " if I be not Jack Falstaff, 
then am I a Jack," etc. 

75. Phleg77tatic. Mrs. Quickly is using a word that is too much 
for her. She seems to have meant choleric. 

85. I ^ II ne^er put my finger, etc. This was a proverbial phrase 



1 64 Notes [Act II 

of the time, and is recorded by Ray, who explains it thus : " meddle 
not with a quarrel voluntarily, wherein you need not be concerned." 

87. Bailie. The folios haye " ballow ; " and Theobald reads 
" baillez." 

90. Throughly. Used by S. thirteen times, thoroughly not at all. 

100. Are yoii avised d' that? Are you aware of that? equiva- 
lent to " You may well say that." Cf. M. for M. ii. 2. 132 : "Art 
avis'd o' that ?" See also on i. i. 165 above. It was a common 
expression in that day. 

122. The good-year ! Generally supposed to be a corruption of 
goujere, and = " Pox on 't ! " ( T. N. iii. 4. 308) ; but, according to 
the Nezv E^tg. Diet, this etymology is " inadmissible," and its real 
origin is unknown. It came to be used in a slightly imprecatory 
way. Cf. Much Ado, i. 3. I, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4. 64, 191, etc. 

1 26, You shall have An fooVs head, etc. A play on Ann. An 
and arte were broad pronunciations of one (Halliwell-Phillipps). A 
fooVs head of your own was a common expression. Cf. M. N. D. 
iii. I. 119 : "What do you see? you see an ass-head of your own, 
do you? " 

132. I trow? Literally, I know or believe; but here "nearly = 
I wonder" (Schmidt). Cf. ii. i. 62 below. 

150. Detest. Protest, of course. Elbow makes the same blun- 
der in M. for AI. ii. i. 69, 75. 

154. Go to. A common phrase of encouragement (as here and 
in ii. I. 7 and iii. 3. 41 below), or reproof (as in Temp. v. i. 297, 
etc.). Allicholy (for melancholy^ occurs again in T. G. of V. iv. 
2. 27. 

160. Confidence. For the blundering use (= conference), cf. 
Much Ado, iii. 5. 3 and R. and J. ii. 4. 133. 



ACT II 



Scene I. — i. Scaped. Not a contraction of escaped, being 
often used in prose. 



Scene I] Notes 1 65 

5. Physician. The folios have " precisian." Cf. Sonn. 147. 5 : 
" My reason, the physician to my love." 

9. Sack. "The generic name of Spanish and Canary wines" 
(Schmidt). We find " Sherris sack " in 2 Hen. iv. 3. 104. 

19. Herod of Jewry. Herod was a common personage in the 
old dramatic mysteries, where he generally appeared as a swagger- 
ing tyrant. Cf. Ham. iii. 2. 16: "it out-Herods Herod." 

2r. Unweighed. Inconsiderate. Cf. z^;zwfz^/;z;?^ (= thoughtless) 
in M.for M. iii. 2. 147. 

22. Flemish dru7ikard. The Flemish were notorious for their 
intemperance. The only other reference to them in S. is in ii. 2. 
304 below. 

23. Conversation. Behaviour; as in A. and C. ii. 6. 131: 
" Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation," etc. Cf. 
Psalms, xxxvii. 14, 1. 23. 

27. Exhibit a bill, etc. Chalmers thought this to be " a sarcasm 
on the many bills which were unadvisedly moved in the parliament 
which began Nov. 5, 1605, and ended May 26, 1606." 

28. Putting down of men. Many of the editors follow Theobald 
in the insertion of " fat " before men ; but surely there is no suffi- 
cient reason for the emendation. Cf. what Mrs. Page says in 78 
below: "I will find you twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste 
man." There is the same merry extravagance here as there. 

30. Puddings. Entrails were often termed puddings, and "as 
sure as his guts are puddings " is still heard in the North of Eng- 
land (Halliwell-Phillipps). Y ox guts, see on i. 3. 84 above. 

49. Sir Alice Ford ! This was not without actual precedent. 
Queen Elizabeth knighted Mary, the lady of Sir Hugh Cholmonde- 
ley, "the bold lady of Cheshire." The ceremony took place at 
Tilbury in 1588. 

50. These knights will hack. This probably means that they will 
become hackneyed, or cheap and vulgar, as Blackstone explained it. 
Cf. p. 10 above. Some make hack = do mischief. Johnson wanted 
to read " we '11 hack," seeing a reference to the punishment of a 



1 66 Notes [Act II 

recreant knight by hacking off his spurs ; and Clarke thinks that 
the meaning may be " Your companion knights would hack you 
from them ; and thus you would not improve your degree of rank." 
52. We burn daylight. We waste time ; as is evident from the 
other instance of the expression in R. and J. i. 4. 43 : — 

" Mercutio. Come, we burn daylight, ho ! 

Romeo. Nay, that 's not so. 

Mercuiio. I mean, sir, in delay 

We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day." 

55. Men's liking. That is, their bodily condition. Cf. I Hen. 
IV. iii. 3. 6 : "I '11 repent, while I am in some liking " (that is, 
v/hile I have some flesh). See also Job, xxxix. 4 : "Their young 
ones are in good liking." In Baret's Alvearie we find, " If one be 
in better plight of bodie, or better liking. Si qua habitior paulo, 
pugilem esse aiunt. Ter." 

60. Hundredth Psalm. The folios have *' hundred Psalms." 

61. Green Sleeves was a popular song of a very free sort. It is 
mentioned again in v. 5. 20 below. 

66. Melted hij?t in his own grease. Steevens quotes Chaucer, 
C. T. 6069 : "That in his owen grese I made him frie." 

76. Press. " Used ambiguously, for a press to print, and a press 
to squeeze" (Johnson). 

79. Turtles. That is, turtle-doves ; the emblem of chaste and 
faithful love. Cf. iii. 3. 43 below. 

84. Honesty. Chastity ; as in 99, ii. 2. 74, 235 below. Cf. the 
adjective in i. 4. 139 above, and 163, ii. 2. 223, iv. 2. 104, etc., below. 

86. Strain. Natural disposition or tendency. Cf. iii. 3. 188 
below : " all of the same strain." There, however, it may be 
figuratively = stock, race; as in y. C. v. I. 59: "the noblest of 
thy strain," etc. In all these we see the common idea of some- 
thing native, natural, or innate. 

87. Boarded me. Cf. Much Ado, ii. I. 149 : "I would he had 
boarded me ; " Ham. ii. 2. 170 : "I '11 board him presently," etc. 



Scene I] Notes 167 

98. Chariness. Nicety, scrupulousness ; the only instance of 
the noun in S. 

99. O, that my husband saw this letter ! Steevens conjectured, 
" O, if my husband," etc. But, as White remarks, the speech is in 
keeping with Mrs. Ford's character (cf. iii. 3. 180 below, for in- 
stance), and must be ascribed to " mingled merriment and malice." 

105. You are the happier woman. At first glance this seems 
inconsistent with what has been said in the last note. On the con- 
trary, it is in perfect keeping therewith, and thoroughly feminine 
and natural. 

109. Curtal. Having a docked tail ; " indicating a dog unfit 
for the chase," as having an imperfect scent (Herford). Cf. C. of 
E. iii. 2. 151 : "She had transform'd me to a curtal dog; " and 
P. P. 273 : " My curtal dog that wont to have play'd," etc. 

114. Gallimaufry. Medley, hotchpotch ; used again in W. T. 
iv. 4. 335. Steevens says that " Pistol ludicrously uses it for a 
woman ; " but it is rather for women in general, Falstaff, he says, 
loves the whole medley of them, high ajtd low, rich and poor, etc. 
Perpend— consider; a word used only by Pistol, Polonius, and the 
clowns. Cf. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 69, T. N.v. i. 307, Ham. ii. 2. 105, etc. 

116. With liver, etc. For the liver as the seat of love, cf. Temp. 
V. I. 56, Much Ado, iv. I. 233, etc. 

117. Actaon. Cf iii. 2. 41 below. Pingzuood \s, the name of a 
dog. 

122. Cuckoo-birds do sing. The note of the cuckoo was sup- 
posed to prognosticate cuckoldom, from the similarity in sound of 
cuckoo and cuckold. Cf. L. L. L. v. 2. 908 : — 

" The cuckoo then on every tree 
Mocks married men," etc. 

See also M. N. D. iii. i. 134 and A. W. i. 3. 67. 

124. Believe it. Page, etc. Johnson thought this should be given 
to Nym ; but Steevens explains the old text thus : " While Pistol 
is informing Ford of Falstaff' s design upon his wife, Nym is talking 



1 68 Notes [Act II 

aside to Page, and giving information of the like plot against him. 
When Pistol has finished, he calls out to Nym to come away ; but 
seeing that he and Page are still in close debate, he goes off alone, 
first assuring Page that he may depend on the truth of Nym's story." 

139. Drawling, affecting. The words are hyphened in the ist 
folio. Affecting = affected ; as in J^. and J. ii. 4. 29 : " affecting 
fantasticoes." It is not an instance of the active participle used 
passively, for it is really affected that is used peculiarly. An affected 
person is one who is given to affecting or affectation. 

142. A Cataian. A " heathen Chinee ; " from Cataia, or Cathay, 
the name given to China by early travellers. Cf. T. N. ii. 3. 80, 
where it is similarly used as a term of reproach. 

177. Lie at the Ga7'ter. That is, lodge or reside there. Cf. ii. 2. 
63 below. Lay in this sense occurs rather quaintly in Holinshed, 
who says of Edward Balliol after his expulsion from Scotland, 
"After this he went and laie a time with the Lady cf Gines, 
that was his kinswoman." 

179. Voyage. Cf. Cymb. i. 4. 170 : "if you make your voyage 
upon her," etc. 

191. Cavalero-justice. Cf. ii. 3. 74 below : "Cavalero Slender; " 
and 2 Lien. IV. v. 3. 62 : " all the cavaleros about London." The 
spelling in the early eds. is Cavaleiro, Cavalerio, etc. It is, of 
course, a corruption of the Spanish caballero, cavalier. 

192. Good even and twenty. A free-and-easy salutation = " good 
evening, and twenty of 'em ! " Cf. Eliot, Fruits for the French, 
1593- "Good night and a thousand to every body." See also 
T. N. ii. 3. 52 : " sweet-and-twenty." "Good even" is a slip on 
Shallow's part, as the time of the scene is evidently in the morn- 
ing. Cf. 154 above, it being remembered that the dinner hour in 
the time of S. was at noon. 

205. Contrary places. That is, different places for meeting, as 
the sequel shows. 

210. Pottle. A large tankard ; originally a measure of two 
quarts. Cf. iii. 5. 29 below. 



Scene I] Notes 169 

212. Brook. The reading of the quartos; the folios have, as 
elsewhere, "Broome." That the former is right is evident from 
ii. 2. 151 below. 

216. Mynheers. The early eds. have "An-heires" or "An- 
hcirs ; " corrected by Theobald. Other emendations are " on, 
here," " on, hearts," " on, heroes," " cavaleires," etc. " On, hearts " 
is favoured, perhaps, by iii. 2. 86 below. 

217. Have with you. I am with you, or I'll go with you; a 
common idiom. Cf. 227 and iii. 2. 91 below. 

221. You stand on distance, your passes, stoccadoes, oXc. In the 
time of S. duelling had been reduced to a science, and its laws laid 
down with great precision. Cf. R. and J. ii. 4, 20 : " He fights as 
you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion ; rests 
me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom : the 
very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist ; a gentleman 
of the very first house, of the first and second cause," etc. Cf. 
Touchstone's ridicule of the causes of quarrel, etc., in A. Y. L. v. 4. 
63 fol. The stoccado was a thrust in fencing. It is the same as 
the stoccata of R. and J. iii. i. 77, the stock of ii. 3. 26 below, and 
the stuck of T. N. iii. 4. 303 and Ham. iv. 7. 162. 

224. Made you. The you is doubtless the colloquial expletive 
pronoun ; as in i. 3. 57 above. For tall (= stout), see on i. 4. 24. 

Johnson remarks here : " Before the introduction of rapiers the 
swords in use were of an enormous length, and sometimes raised 
with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, censures the 
innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what 
he could once have done with the long sword, and ridicules the 
terms and rules of the rapier." The first quarto reads here : — 

"I 
Have scene the day, with my two hand sword 
I would a made you foure tall Fencers 
Scipped like Rattes," 

229. Stands so firmly on his wife'' s frailty. Some would change 
frailty to " fealty " or " fidelity ; " but Ford uses frailty because 



lyo Notes [Act ii 

he has no confidence in Mistress Page's fidehty. The meaning, as 
Malone puts it, is "has such perfect confidence in his unchaste 
wife." 

232. Made there. Did there. Cf. iv. 2. 53 below : " But what 
make you here ? " The idiom was a common one, and is played 
upon in L. L. L. iv. 3. 190 and Rich. III. i. 3. 164 fol. 

Scene II. — 6. Grated upon. Worried, vexed ; as in 2 Hen. 
IV. iv. I. 90: "suborn'd to grate on you." For the transitive ^r (2/^ 
in the same sense, see Hain. iii. i. 3 and A. and C i. i. 18. 

7. Coach-fellow. Companion ; commonly explained as = "a 
horse drawing in the same carriage with another" (Schmidt). 

8. Geminy. Couple, pair (Latin geniini); used by S. only 
here. 

11. The handle of her fan. As Steevens notes, fans were then 
more costly than now, being made of ostrich feathers, set into 
handles of gold, silver, ivory, etc. He quotes, among other refer- 
ences to these, Marston, Satires, 1578: — 

" And buy a hoode and silver-handled fan 
With fortie pound." 

12. I took V upon mine honour. I protested by mine honour. 
Cf. K.John, i. i. iio: — 

" And took it on his death 
That this my mother's son was none of his." 

16. A short knife and a throng! That is, for cutting purses in 
a crowd. Purses, it will be remembered, were usually hung to the 
girdle. Malone quotes Overbury, Characters: "The eye of this 
wolf is as quick in his head as a cutpurse in a throng." 

17. Pickt-hatch! A cant name for a district of bad repute in 
London. Steevens quotes several references to it from Jonson and 
other writers of the time. He suggests also a plausible origin for 
the term. A hatch (see K. John, i. i. 171) was a half-door (that 
is, with the lower half arranged to shut, leaving the upper half 
open like a window), and this was sometimes protected hy picks, or 



Scene II J Notes 171 

spikes, to prevent thieves and marauders from " leaping the hatch " 
{Lear, iii. 6. 76). Cf. Cupid'' s Whh'ligig, 1607: "Set some picks 
upon your hatch, and, I pray, profess to keep a bavv^dy-house." 

24. Lurch. Explained by Schmidt and others as = "lurk." 
The only other instance of the vi^ord in S. is in Cor. ii. 2. 105 : " He 
lurch'd all svi^ords of the garland" (that is, robbed them of the 
priz^. Cotgrave has " Fortraire. To lurch, purloyne ; " and 
Coles (^Lat. Dict^ renders lurch by " subduco, surripio." 

25. Cat-a-mountain. The folio has " Cat-a-Mountaine-lookes." 
Cf. Temp. iv. i. 262: "Than pard or cat o' mountain" ("Cat o' 
Mountaine " in the folio) ; the only other mention of the beast 
in S. 

26. Red-lattice phrases. " Ale-house conversation " (Johnson). 
Cf. 2 Hen. LV. ii. 2. 86 : " through a red lattice." Steevens 
quotes The Miseries of Inf ore' d Marriage, 1607: " 't is treason 
to the red lattice, enemy to the signpost." Malone cites Braith- 
waite, Strapado for the Divell, 1615 : " Monsieur Bacchus, master- 
gunner of the pottle-pot ordnance, prime founder of red lattices ; " 
and Douce adds, from the Blacke Booke, 1604: "watched some- 
times ten houres together in an ale-house, ever and anon peeping 
forth, and sampling thy nose M^ith the red Lattis." 

Bold-beating. If this is not a misprint, it is = browbeating. 
Hanmer's "bull-baiting" is a plausible conjecture. The Camb. 
editors and many others retain bold-beating. 

29. Would thou. The folio reading ; changed in most eds. to 
" wouldst thou," but it is not necessary to correct Pistol's language. 

48. Well, one Mistress Ford, you say, — . The folio reads 
" Well, on ; Mistresse Ford, you say." The emendation is 
favoured by the preceding speech. 

53. God. The quarto reading; changed to "Heaven" in the 
folio, on account of the statute of 1606 against the abuse of the 
name of God in plays, etc. 

61. Canaries. Perhaps = quandary, though S. does not use 
that word elsewhere. 



172 Notes [Act II 

63. Lay at Windsor. "That is, resided there" (Malone). 
See on ii. i. 177 above. 

66. Coach after coach. See p. 10 above. 

67. Rushling. Rustling. So alligant in the next line = elegant. 

77. Pe7isioners. Gentlemen in the personal service of the sov- 
ereign. Cf. M. N. D. ii. I. 10. In both places there is an allusion 
to Queen Elizabeth's band of military courtiers called pensioners. 
They were the handsomest and tallest young men of good family 
that could be found. 

87. Wot. Know ; used only in the present tense and the parti- 
ciple wotting, for which see W. T. iii. 2. 77. 

90. Frampold. Quarrelsome. The word is a rare one, but 
Steevens cites examples of it from Nash, Middleton, and others. 

103. Char?ns. That is, love-charms, or magic influences. 

114. Of all loves. For love's sake; as in M. N. D. ii. 2. 154: 
"Speak, of all loves! " In 0th. iii. i. 13, the ist quarto has "of 
all loves," the folios " for love's sake." 

118. Take all, pay all. This was a proverbial expression. 

126. Nay-word. Watchword; as in v. 2. 5 below. See also 
T. N. ii. 3. 146. 

135. Punk. "A vessel of the small craft, employed as a carrier 
(and so called) for merchants." There is a play on this sense and 
the common one (= harlot). 

136. Fights! A technical term for "cloths hung round the ship 
to conceal the men from the enemy" (Johnson). Steevens quotes 
The Fair Maid of the West, 1615 : — 

" Then now up with your fights, and let your ensigns, 
Blest with St. George's cross, play with the winds." 

146. And hath sent your worship, etc. As Malone notes, it was 
a common custom, in the poet's time, to send presents of wine from 
one room to another, either in token of friendship, or (as here) 
by way of introduction to acquaintance. Cf. Merry Passages and 
Feasts (Harl. MSS. 6395) : " Ben : Johnson was at a taverne, and 



Scene II] Notes 173 

in comes Bishoppe Corbett (but not so then) into the next roome. 
Ben : Johnson calls for a quart of raw wine, gives it to the tapster : 
Sirrha, says he, carry this to the gentleman in the next chamber, 
and tell him, I j^mfice my service to him; the fellow did so, and 
in those vi^ords: Friend, sayes Dr. Corbett, I thanke him for his 
love ; but pr'ythee tell hym from me, hee's mistaken, for ^amfices 
are allwayes burnH.^'' Corbet evidently preferred " burnt sack " 
(cf. ii. I. 211 above and iii. i. 105 belovi^), as "mine host" 
seems to have done. 

The mornitzg's draught of ale, beer, wine, or spirits was a com- 
mon thing in that day, as well as long before and after. It was 
not until towards the end of the 17th century that the morning 
cup of coffee took its place. Halliwell-Phillipps cites many refer- 
ences to it; as the following from GraticE Ludentes, 1638: "A 
Welch minister being to preach on a Sunday, certaine merry com- 
panions had got him into a celler to drink his mornings draught, 
and in the meane time stole his notes out of his pocket. Hee 
nothing doubting, went to the church into the pulpit, where hav- 
ing ended his prayer, he mist at last his notes, wherefore hee saide ; 
My good neighbours, I have lost my sermon, but I will reade you 
a chaptier in Job shall be worth two of it." 

153. Via! An interjection of encouragement or exultation; 
from the Italian, and literally = away ! Cf. M. of V. ii. 2. 1 1 : 
" via ! says the fiend ; away ! says the fiend," etc. Florio calls it 
" an adverb of encouraging much used by commanders, as also by 
riders to their horses." 

160. Give us leave. A courteous phrase of dismissal. Cf. K. 
John, i. I. 230: "James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave awhile?" 
See also R. and J. i. 3. 7, T. G. of V. iii. i. i, etc. 

165. Noi to charge you. "That is, not with a purpose of put- 
ting you to expense, or being burthensome" (Johnson). 

168. Unseasoned. Unseasonable; as in 2 Hen. IV. iii. i. 105: 
" unseason'd hours." Daniel takes it to be = " not seasoned, not 
prepared or prefaced." 



174 Notes [Act II 

189. Sith. Since. Cf. Ham. ii. 2. 6, etc. 

197. Engrossed opportunities. That is, taken every opportunity. 

201. What she would have given. That is, what sort of presents 
she would like. 

205. Unless experience, etc. The Cambridge ed. reads "a 
jewel that I have purchased," as the 4th folio does. The earlier 
folios have " a jewel, that," etc. 

208. Love like a shadow, etc. As Malone remarks, this has the 
air of a quotation, but it has not been proved to be such. Steevens 
cites Florio's translation of some Italian verses : — 

" They weep to winne, and wonne they cause to die, 
Follow men flying, and men following fly ; " 

and a sonnet by Queen Elizabeth : — 

" My care is like my shaddowe in the sunne, 
Follows me fliinge, flies when I pursue it." 

Halliwell-Phillipps quotes from a song by Jonson : — 

" Follow a shaddow, it still flies you ; 
Seeme to flye it, it will pursue : 
So court a mistris, shee denyes you; 
Let her alone, shee will court you. 
Say are not women truely, then, 
Stil'd but the shaddowes of us men ? " 

225. Shrewd, Evil ; the original sense of the word. Cf. A. Y. L. 
V. 4. 179: " endur'd shrewd days and nights," etc. 

228. Of great admittance. Admitted to the society of great 
persons. Authentic = of acknowledged standing. 

229. Alloived. Approved. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. iv. 2. 54: "I like 
them all, and do allow them well." 

230. Preparations. Accomplishments. 

235. Amiable. Amorous, loving; as in Much Ado, iii. 3. i6l : 
" this amiable encounter." 

247. With any detection in my hand. That is, with any evi- 
dence that I had detected her in unchastity. 



Scene II] Notes 175 

248. Instance. Example. Cf. C. of E. iv. 3. 88 : " this present 
instance of his rage," etc. 

249. Ward. A technical term in fencing fo;: posture of defence. 
Cf. Temp. i. 2. 471 : "Come from your ward ; " i Hen. IV. ii. 4. 
215 : "my old ward," etc. 

251. Other her defejices. Cf. lear, i. 4. 259: "other your new 
pranks," etc. For ioo-too, cf. M. of V. ii. 6. 42: "too-too light," 
etc. See also quotation in note on iii. 3. 43 below. 

274. Wittolly. Equivalent to cuckoldly just above. Cf. 301 
below, where wittol- cuckold = " one who knows his wife's false- 
hood, and is contented with it " (Malone). 

280. Mechanical. Vulgar ; like a mere labourer. Cf. 2 Hen. VI. 
i. 3. 196: "Base dunghill villain and mechanical! " See also_/. C. 
i. I. 3. It may be a question whether salt-butter is = dealing in 
salt butter, or a mere huckster (as Schmidt makes it), or = too 
poor to indulge in the luxury of fresh butter ; but it is probably 
the latter. English people nowadays consider that only unsalted 
butter is fit for the table, and wonder that Yankees often find it 
insipid. 

284. Predominate. An astrological term ; like predominant, for 
which see W. T. i. 2. 196, A. W.'\. i. 211, etc. 

286. Aggravate his style. Add to his titles (by making him a 
cuckold). Style is used in the heraldic sense. Steevens quotes 
Heywood, Golden Age, 161 1: "I will create lords of a greater 
style." 

288. Soon at night. See on i. 4. 8 above. 

298. Ajnaimon and Barbason were devils, as the context shows. 
Reginald Scot, Harsnet, and other writers of the time give us as 
long lists of these "several devils' names" as Glendower bored 
Hotspur with (i Hen. IV. iii. i. 154). Randle Holme, in his 
Academy of Armourie (quoted by Steevens), says that " Atnaymon 
is the chief whose dominion is on the north part of the infernal 
gulph," and that ^' Barbatos is Uke a Sagittarius, and hath 30 
legions under him." 



176 



Notes [Act II 



300. Additions. Titles. Cf. Macb. i, 3. 106, iii. r. 100, Ham, i. 
4. 20, ii. I. 47, etc. 

301. W ittol-cuckold. The folios have " Wittoll, Cuckold," and 
some modern editors follow them. See on 274 above. 

305. Aqiia-vitcB. Ardent spirits ; here probably = whiskey. Reed 
says that Dericke, in The Image of Ireland, 1581, mentions uske- 
beaghe (or usquebazigh, the same word as the modern whiskey), and 
in a note explains it to mean aqua-vitce. 

311. Eleven 0'' clock the hour. " It was necessary for the plot that 
he should mistake the hour, and come too late " (Mason). 

Scene III. — 24. Foin. Thrust ; a fencing term. Cf. Much 
Ado, V. I. 84, 2 Hen. IV. ii. I. 17, etc. Traverse elsewhere is = 
march ; and here it may mean " baffle by shifting place." Schmidt 
thinks it is ■=foin. Punio (Italian = point), stock (see on ii. i. 221 
above), reverse, and montant (Italian montanto, for which see Much 
Ado, i. I. 30) were all technicalities of the fencing-school. 

29. Heart of elder ? " In contradistinction to ' heart of oak,' 
elder-wood having nothing but soft pith at heart" (Clarke). 

30. Bully stale. The word stale = urine ; as in A. and C. i. 4. 
62: "the stale of horses." This, like Urinal just below, is a hit 
at the practice of examining the patient's water then in vogue. Cf. 
2 Hen. IV. i. 2. i : " What says the doctor to my water ? " 

33. Castilian. The folios have ".Castalion," and the quartos 
" Castallian." It may be, as Farmer suggests, " a slur upon the 
Spaniards, who were held in great contempt after the business of 
the Armada." There is perhaps also " an allusion to his profession, 
as z.^2X&x- caster" (Malone). To cast\h& water was the technical 
term for inspecting it. Cf. Macb. v. 3. 50 : — 

" If thou couldst, doctor, cast 
The water of my land, find her disease," etc. 

40. The hair. The grain, the nature. Cf. i Hen. IV. iv. i. 
61: — 



Scene I] Notes 1 77 

" The quality and hair of our attempt 
Brooks no division." 

44. Bodykins. A form of swearing by God's body, or the sacra- 
mental bread. Cf. Ham. ii. 2. 554 : " God's bodykins, man, much 
better ! " Cf. also ''od''s heartlings in iii. 4. 58 below, ^od^s nouns in 
iv. I. 24, etc. 

46* Make one. That is, one of the combatants. 

55. Churchman. Ecclesiastic; as in T.N. iii. 1.4, Rich. III. 
iii. 7. 48, etc. 

60. Mock-water. Perhaps another hit at the urinary diagnosis. 

89. Cried game ? A doubtful passage which has been variously 
emended. " Cried I aim ? " (see on iii. 2. 42) is the most plausible 
of these conjectures, and is adopted by several editors. Dr. Ingleby 
{Shakes. HermeneuHcs, p. 75) remarks : " There can hardly be a 
doubt that under the words Cried game, if authentic, there lurks 
an allusion of the time which has now to be hunted out. If cried 
game? be either Is it cried gajne ? or Cried I game ? we apprehend 
the allusion is not far to seek. In hare-hunting a person was em- 
ployed and paid to find the hare, ' muzing on her meaze,' or, as we 
say, in her form. He was called the hare-finder. When he had 
found her, he first cried Soho ! to betray the fact to the pursuers ; 
he then proceeded to put her up, and 'give her courser's law.' 
What, then, can Cried I game ? mean but Did I cry game ? Did I 
cry Soho? In the play before us the pursuit was after Mistress 
Anne Page. She was the hare, and the Host undertook to betray 
her whereabouts to Dr. Caius in order that he might urge his love- 
suit." 

93. Adversary. Advocate or accessory. The Host plays upon 
the ignorance of Caius (Herford). 



ACT III 



Scene I. — 5. Pitty-ward. In the direction of the pitty, prob- 
ably a local name in that day, though now lost. Capell reads " city- 

MERRY WIVES — 12 



178 Notes [Act III 

ward." Halliwell-Phillipps thinks it means " towards the Petty or 
Little Park," as distinguished from the Park. 

14. Costard. Properly a kind of apple (whence coster monger-, 
or costard-tiionger^', then, in cant language, the head, as being 
round like an apple. Cf. Z. Z. Z. iii. i. 71, Lear, iv. 6. 247, etc. 

16. To shallow rivers, etc. This is from a poem which William 
Jaggard, when he brought out The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, 
included as one of Shakespeare's productions; but in 1600 it was 
attributed to its real author, Christopher Marlowe, in the collection 
of poems entitled England'' s Helicon. Jaggard was perhaps misled 
by the quotation from the poem here. If so, it tends to prove that 
the play was written before the publication of The Passionate Pil- 
grim (Stokes). The poem is familiar, but some readers may be 
glad to see it reprinted here : — 

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love 

Come live with me and be my love, 
And we will all the pleasures prove 
That hills and valleys, dale and field, 
And all the craggy mountains yield. 
There will we sit upon the rocks, 
And see the shepherds feed their flocks, 
By shallow rivers, by whose falls 
Melodious birds sing madrigals. 
There will I make thee beds of roses, 
With a thousand fragrant posies, 
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle 
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle; 
A gown made of the finest wool. 
Which from our pretty lambs we pull : 
Fair lined slippers for the cold, 
With buckles of the purest gold ; 
A belt of straw, and ivy buds, 
With coral clasps and amber studs : 
And if these pleasures may thee move, 
Come live with me, and be my love. 



Scene I] Notes 179 

Thy silver dishes for thy meat, 
As precious as the gods do eat, 
Shall on an ivory table be 
Prepar'd each day for thee and me. 
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing 
For thy delight each May morning ; 
If these delights thy mind may move, 
^ • Then live with me and be my love. 

In Jaggard's compilation, the poem wsls accompanied by an answer 
signed " Ignoto." Walton, in his Compleat Angler, has inserted 
both, describing the first as " that smooth song which was made by 
Kit Marlowe," and the other as " an answer to it by Sir Walter 
Raleigh in his younger days." I add this also as " old-fashioned 
poetry, but choicely good : " — 

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd 

If that the world and love were young, 
And truth in every shepherd's tongue. 
These pretty pleasures might me move 
To live with thee and be thy love. 
But time drives flocks from field to fold, 
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold. 
And Philomel becometh dumb, 
And all complain of cares to come; 
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields 
To wayward winter reckoning yields. 
A honey tongue, a heart of gall, 
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. 
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of roses. 
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies. 
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten, 
In folly ripe, in reason rotten. 
Thy belt of straw, and ivy buds, ' 
Thy coral clasps and amber studs, — 
All these in me no means can move 
To come to thee and be thy love. 



i8o Notes [Act III 

What should we talk of dainties then, 
Of better meat than 's fit for men ? 
These are but vain ; that 's only good 
Which God hath bless'd and sent for food. 
But could youth last and love still breed, 
Had joys no date and age no need, 
Then these delights my mind might move 
To live with thee and be thy love. 

23. Whenas I sat in Pabylon. This line is from the old version 
of the 137th Psalm: — 

" When we did sit in Babylon, 
The rivers round about, 
Then, in remembrance of Sion, 
The tears for grief burst out." 

For whenas — when, see C. of E. iv. 4. 140, Sonn. 49. 3, etc. 

24. Vagrant. Cf. Much Ado, iii. 3. 26: "all vagrom men." 
Johnson changes the word to " vagrant," 

44. Doublet and hose. Equivalent to the modern " coat and 
breeches." Cf. A. Y. L. ii. 4. 6, iii. 2. 206, 232, iv. i. 206, etc. 
Here in your doublet and hose means only thus dressed, or without 
a cloak. 

56. So wide of his own respect. " So indifferent to his own repu- 
tation." 

95. Gallia. Here = Wales (Fr. Galles, ox pays des Galles). 

99. Machiavel? For the allusion to the great Italian, cf. 
I Hen. VI. V. 4. 74 and 3 Hen. VI. iii. 2. 193. 

103. Give me thy hand, terrestrial ; so. These words are from 
the quarto ; first inserted in the text by Theobald. 

114. Sot. Fool (Fr. sot^ ; as elsewhere in S. Cf. Temp. iii. 2. 
loi, C. of E. ii. 2. 196, T. N. i. 5. 129, v. i. 202, etc. 

115. Vlouting-stog. Flouting-stock, laughing-stock. Cf, iv. 5. 
82 below. 

118. Scall. Evans's word for j^«/(^ (= scabby, scurvy). Cf. 



Scene II] Notes 1 8 1 

A. and C. v. 2. 215: "scald rhymers," etc. Cogging ■= cheating, 
Cf. iii. 3. 49, 72 below. 

Scene II. — 17. The dickens. The one instance of the expres- 
sion in S. It is rare in writers of the time. Heywood, in his 
Edw. IF. 1600, has "What, the dickens ! " 

32. Twelve score. That is, yards ; as in i Hen. IV. ii. 4. 598 
and 2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 52. As this is a short distance for a cannon, 
it has been suggested that rods may be understood ; but Ford 
means to make it a very easy shot, which for the guns of that day 
might not be more than 720 feet. At any rate, 5I times that dis- 
tance, or nearly a mile, would be too much for a point-blank shot. 

40. So-seeming. Referring to modesty ; not = "so specious," as 
Steevens makes it. 

41. Act(Eon. Here = cuckold ; alluding to the proverbial horns. 
Cf. ii. I. 117 and iii. 2. 41. 

42. Cry aim. Encourage ; " an expression borrowed from 
archery = to encourage the archers by crying out aim when they 
were about to shoot, and then in a general sense to applaud, to 
encourage with cheers" (Schmidt). Cf. K.John, ii. i. 196; and 
see also on ii. 3. 89 above. 

55. Lingered. Been waiting. 

67. Speaks holiday. That is, his best, his choicest language. 
Warburton thought it to be = " in a high-flown, fustian style ; " 
but the host means simply holiday style as distinguished from 
everyday style, or that of common people. Cf. i Hen. IV. i, 3. 
46 : " With many holiday and lady terms ; " also " high-day wit " 
in M. of V. ii. 9. 98, and " festival terms " in Much Ado, v. 2. 41. 

68. ^Tis in his buttons. A free-and-easy expression = 't is in 
him to do it, he can do it if he will. The late President Garfield 
said that he never met a ragged boy without feeling that he owed 
him a salute for the possibilities "buttoned up under his coat." 
Some of the editors of the last century see an allusion to " a custom 
among the country fellows, of trying whether they should succeed 



1 82 Notes [Act m 

with their mistresses, by carrying the bachelor'^s buUons (a plant of 
the Lychnis kind, whose flowers resemble a coat button in form) in 
their pockets." Steevens cites many contemporaneous references 
to these bachelor''s buttons. 

71. Having. Possessions, property. Cf. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 396: 
"Your having in beard; " T. N. iii. 4. 379: "My having is not 
much," etc. 

He kept company with the wild prince, etc. This has been quoted 
as evidence that Henry IV. was written before M. W. 

73. Knit a knot in his fortunes. His fortunes being now some- 
what " at loose ends " on account of his loose ways. 

88. Pipe-wine. There is a play upon pipe in its double sense of 
a cask and a musical instrument. It is suggested by canary, which 
meant a lively dance as well as a kind of wine. Cf. A. W, ii. I. 

77: — 

" make you dance canary 
With spritely fire and motion." 

Here Falstaff is to dance to Ford's piping. 

Scene III. — 2. Buck-basket. A basket for carrying clothes to 
the bucking (132 below), or washing. 

14. Whitsters. Whiteners or bleachers (Fr. blanchisseuses) of 
linen. The reader will bear in mind that -ster was originally a 
feminine ending, though it retains that force only in spinster. 

22. Eyas-musket ! Young sparrow-hawk. Eyas is properly a 
nestling hawk (see Ham. ii. 2. 355), and musket (not mentioned 
elsewhere by S.) is the young male hawk. Cf Spenser, F. Q.\. ii. 

34: — 

" Like Eyas hauke up mounts unto the skies, 

His newly-budded pineons to assay; " 

and Hymne of Heavenly Love : " Ere flitting Time could wag his 
eyas wings." Izaak Walton, in his enumeration of hawks, men- 
tions " the sparhawk and the musket " as the old and young birds 
of the same species. 



Scene III] Notes 1 83 

27. Jack-a-Lent. A small puppet thrown at during Lent. 
Steevens quotes Greeners Tu Quoque : " if a boy, that is throwing 
at his Jack o' Lent, chance to hit me on the shins," etc. 

42. PMmpion. Pumpkin ; the modern name being a corruption 
of the old one. S. mentions it nowhere else. 

43. Turtles. Turtle-doves. See on ii. i. 79 above. Jay was a 
metaphor for a harlot. Cf. Cymb. iii. 4. 51: — 

" Some jay of Italy, 
Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him." 

Warburton notes that the Italian putta ( = jay) is used in the same 
figurative sense. 

44. Have I caught thee, eic. The beginning of the second song 
in Sidney's Astrophel and Stella is 

" Have I caught my heav'nly Jewell, 
Teaching sleepe most faire to be ? 
Now will I teach her that she 
When she wakes, is too-too cruell." 

49. Cog, Cheat, dissemble. See on iii. i. 118 above. 

57. Beauty. The Variorum of 1821 has "bent," the quarto 
reading. Malone quotes A. and C. i. 3. 36 : " Bliss in our brows' 
bent." 

58. Ship-tire and tire-valiant are forms of the tire, or head-dress, 
of the time. Cf. Mtich Ado, iii. 4. 13. Venetian admittance = ad- 
mitted or approved as the fashion in Venice. Cf. T. of S. ii. i. 308, 
where Petruchio says he is going to Venice " To buy apparel 'gainst 
the wedding-day." Halliwell-Phillipps quotes Merchant Royall, 
1607: "if wee weare any thing, it must be pure Venetian, Roman, 
or barbarian ; but the fashion of all must be French." 

62. Traitor. "That is, to thy own merit" (Steevens). The 
reading is that of the quartos ; the folios have " tyrant," and omit 
By the Lord. See on ii. 2. 56 above. 

63. Absolute. Perfect. Cf. Ham. v. 2. 1 1 1 : "an absolute gen- 
tleman," etc. 



1 84 Notes [Act III 

65. Farthingale. Hooped petticoat. Cf. T. G. of V. ii. 7. 51: 
" What compass will you wear your farthingale ? " In T. of S. 
iv. 3. 56, the spelling is fardingale. 

66. If Fortune thy foe were not. Evidently an allusion to a 
popular old song beginning " Fortune, my foe, why dost thou 
frown on me ? " Nature thy friend =i Nature being thy friend. 

73. A many. Now obsolete, though we say a few and many a. 
Cf. M. of V. iii. 5. 73, Rich. III. iii. 7. 184, etc. Tennyson uses 
the expression in The Miller'' s Datighter : "They have not shed a 
many tears." 

75. Bucklersbury. A street in London (on the right of Cheap- 
side, as one goes towards the Bank) which in the poet's time was 
chiefly inhabited by druggists, who sold all kinds of simples, or 
herbs, green as well as dry. 

80. The Counter-gate. The Counter (cf. C. of E. iv. 2. 39, 
where there may be a play on the word) was the name of two 
prisons in London. 

92. The arras. The tapestry hangings of the room. Steevens 
remarks : " The spaces left between the walls and the wooden 
frames on which arras was hung, were not more commodious to 
our ancestors than to the authors of their ancient dramatic pieces. 
Borachio in Much Ado and Polonius in Hamlet also avail them- 
selves of this convenient recess." 

loi. To your husband. Cf. T. G. of V. iii. I. 84 : "I have 
thee to my tutor," etc. 

123. I had rather than a thousand pound. Cf. i. I. 178 above: 
" I had rather than forty shillings," etc. Had rather is good old 
English of which would rather is merely a " modern improvement." 

127. Conveyance. In the general sense of "means of getting 
him out of the way" (as in Rich. III. iv. 4. 283), not referring to 
the basket, which she sees a moment later. 

132. Whiting-time. Bleaching-time. This, as Holt White 
notes, was spring, the season when " maidens bleach their summer 
smocks" (Z. I.I. V. 2. 916). 



Scene III] Notes 185 

141. / love thee. Malone adds (from the quarto) " and none 
but thee," which he assumes to be spoken to Mrs. Page aside. 

148. Cowl- staff. A pole on which a tub or basket was borne 
between two persons. Malone says that in Essex a large tub is 
called a cozvl, and Halliwell-Phillipps {Archaic Diet.) gives coul 
with that sense. Florio has '■^Bicollo, a cowle-staffe to carie behind 
and before with, as they use in Italy to carie two buckets at 
once ; " and Cotgrave defines courge as " stang, palestaffe, or cole- 
staffe, carried on the shoulder, and notched (for the hanging of a 
pale, &c.) at both ends." Drumble = move sluggishly, " dawdle ; " 
still used in the West of England. S. has the word only here. 

157. You were best meddle. Originally the pronoun was dative : 
" it were best for you ; " but it came to be regarded as the 
nominative. Cf. A. Y. L. i. i. 154 : "thou wert best look to it," 
etc. 

159. Wash myself of the buck. That is, rid myself of the horns 
of the cuckold. 

161. Of the season. In season; a technical term. CV unsea- 
sonable in R. of L. 581. 

163. To-night. Last night ; as often. Cf. M. of V. ii. 5. 18 : 
" For I did dream of money-bags to-night," etc. 

167. Uncape. Probably = " uncouple," which Hanmer sub- 
stituted. Warburton explains it as = " unearth," and Steevens as 
= " to turn the fox out of the bag." S. uses the word only here. 

188. Strain. See on ii. i. 86 above. 

195. Foolish carrion. The 1st folio has " foolishion Carion ; " 
apparently an example of that variety of " duplicative " misprints, 
as Dr. Ingleby calls them {Shakes. Hermenetctics, p. 36), in which 
the ending of the next word is anticipated in the one we are writ- 
ing or putting in type.i 

1 Like " excellence sense," for " excellent sense," a misprint in Dr. 
Ingleby's S. the Man and the Book, Part II. (p. 31) which, on my point- 
ing it out to him, he called " a capital example " of this class of mistakes. 



1 86 Notes [Act III 

Scene IV. — Mr. P. A. Daniel remarks : " The time of this 
scene is singularly elastic. It is prior to, concurrent with, and sub- 
sequent to the preceding scene : prior to in the interview between 
Fenton and Anne ; concurrent with in the arrival of Shallow and 
Slender, who left the company in sc. ii. to come here, while the 
rest of the company went on to Ford's house ; subsequent to in the 
return home of Page and his wife from the dinner at Ford's house, 
with which sc. iii. is supposed to end. And Mrs. Quickly ? In 
modern editions Mrs. Quickly arrives on the scene with Shallow 
and Slender ; but there is no authority for this or any other of the 
entries in this scene in the folio. The scene — and so it is with all 
the scenes throughout the play — is merely headed with a list of 
the actors who appear in it : the special time at which they enter 
is not marked." 

8. Societies. Cf. companies in Hen. F". i. I. 55 : " His com- 
panies unlettered, rude, and shallow." 

10. A property. Ci. J. C. iv. i. 40 : — 

" Do not talk of him 
But as a property." 

16. Stamps. Coins ; as in Cymb. v. 4. 24 : " 'Tween man and 
man they weigh not every stamp," etc. 

20. Opportunity. That is, taking advantage of the opportune 
time for appealing to him. 

24. / '// make a shaft or a bolt on 'A " A proverbial phrase, 
signifying * I '11 do it either cleverly or clumsily,' ' hit or miss,' the 
shaft being a sharp arrow used by skilful archers, the bolt a blunt 
one employed merely to shoot birds with" (Clarke). Qi. fooVs 
bolt in A. Y. L. v. 4. 67 and Hen. V. iii. 7. 132. See also bird- 
bolt in Much Ado, i. I. 42, etc. ''Slid is = God's lid ; an oath of 
the same class as I have noted on ii. 3. 44 above. 

46. Come cut and long-tail. " A proverbial expression = * what- 
ever kind may come ; ' cut and long-tail referring to dogs and 
horses with docked or undocked tails. The characteristic way in 



Scene V] Notes 187 

which this bumpkin squire interlards his speech with illustrations 
borrowed from the stud and the kennel, from country sports and 
pursuits, is worth observing" (Clarke). 

58. 'Od^s heartlings. See on ii. 3. 44 above. 

67. Happy man be his dole ! Happiness be his lot ! Cf. T. of S. 
i. I. 144, I Hen. IV. ii. 2. 81, etc. For dole (literally = dealing, 
distribution), cf. 2 Hen. IV. I. 169 : "in the dole of blows ; " and 
A. W. ii. 3. 76 : " what dole of honour." The word is still a 
familiar one in England for a charitable allowance of provision to 
the poor. 

74. Impatient. Metrically a quadrisyllable. Cf. submission in 
iv. 4. II. 

84. Advance the colours of my love. For the metaphor, cf. R. and 
J. V. 3. 96 : " And death's pale flag is not advanced there." 

89. Quick. Alive ; as in Ham. v. I. 137 : " 'tis for the dead, and 
not the quick," etc. See also Acts, x. 42, 2 Timothy, iv. i, Hebrezvs, 
iv. 12, etc. 

On the passage, Collins compares Jonson, Barthol. Fair : " Would 
I had been set in the ground, all but the head of me, and had my 
brains bowled at." 

99. A fool and a physician ? Hanmer changes and to " or ; " 
but, as Clarke notes, it is just in Mrs. Quickly's blundering way to 
couple the two suitors by and instead of or. 

102. Once to-night. Some time to-night. 

114. Slack. Neglect ; as in lear, ii. 4. 248 and 0th. iv. 3. 88. 

Scene V. — There is a strange confusion of time in this scene, 
which Mr. P. A. Daniel states thus : " We find Falstaff calling for 
sack to qualify the cold water he had swallowed when slighted into 
the river from the buck-basket. One would naturally suppose that 
the time of this scene must be the afternoon of the day of that 
adventure, and, indeed, it can be but a little later than the time of 
the preceding scene ; but lo ! when Mrs. Quickly enters with the 
invitation for ' to-morrow, eight o'clock,' she gives his worship good 



1 88 Notes [Act III 

morrow [= good morning] ; tells him that Ford goes this morning 
a-birding, and that Mrs. Ford desires him to come to her once more, 
between eight mid nine. As Mrs. Quickly departs, Falstaff re- 
marks, ' I marvel I hear not of Master Brook ; he sent me word to 
stay within : I like his money well. O, here he comes.' And Ford 
(as Brook), who was to have visited Falstaff 'soon at night' after 
the adventure which ended with the buck-basket, makes his appear- 
ance to learn the result of the first interview, and to be told of the 
second, which is just about to take place. ' Her husband,' says Fal- 
staff, ' is this morning gone a-birding : I have received from her 
another embassy of meeting ; 'twixt eight and nine is the hour, Mas- 
ter Brook.' ' ^Tis past eight already, sir,' says Ford ; and Falstaff 
replies, ' Is it ? I will then address me to my appointment,' and so 
he goes out, and Ford follows, confident this time of taking him in 
his house." 

Herford suggests that the scene " has probably been put together 
out of two scenes, separated by a night's interval, in the original 
version ; " but if S. wrote the play in a fortnight (see p. 12 above) 
the confusion here and elsewhere may be due to haste in composi- 
tion. 

9. Slighted me. " Threw me heedlessly " (Schmidt) . 

II. A blind bitches puppies. Hanmer made it read "a bitch's 
blind puppies ; " but the mistake may be intentional, as being in 
keeping with Falstaff's state of mind at the time. 

26. Cry you mercy. Beg your pardon ; as in Much Ado, i. 2. 26, 
etc. In 0th. v. I. 93 we find " I cry you gentle pardon." 

28. Chalices. Cups ; those in which the wine ordered in 3 above 
had been served (Clarke) . 

29. Y ox pottle (see on ii. i. 210) White reads "posset;" but 
brew may be used jocosely. Simple 0/ itself seems to imply that he 
wanted plain sack — unless, perchance, possets were sometimes 
made without eggs. All the old recipes that I have seen include 
the pullet-sperm. The following, for instance, is quoted by Staun- 
ton from A True Gentleman^ s Delight : "To Make a Sack-Posset. 



Scene V] Notes 189 

— Take Two Quarts of pure good Cream, and a Quarter of a Pound 
of the best Almonds. Stamp them in the Cream and boyl, with 
Amber and Musk therein. Then take a Pint of Sack in a basin, 
and set it on a Chafing-dish, till it be blood-warm ; then take the 
Yolks of Twelve Eggs, with Four of their Whites, and beat them 
well together ; and so put the Eggs into the Sack. Then stir all 
together over the coals, till it is all as thick as you would have it. 
If you now take some Amber and Musk, and grind the same quite 
small, with sugar, and strew this on the top of your Possit, I prom- 
ise you that it shall have a most delicate and pleasant taste." An- 
other receipt, given by the same editor, allows " eggs just ten " to a 
pint of sack, with the other " ingrediencies." 

44. Yearn your heart. Grieve you. Cf. Rich. II. v. 5. 76 : "O, 
how it yearn'd my heart," etc. The verb is used intransitively in 
the same sense ; as in J. C. ii. 2. 129, Hen. V. ii. 3. 3, etc. 

67. Sped you, sir ? Had you good luck ? Were you successful ? 
Cf. K.John, iv. 2. 141, Cymb. v. 4. 190, etc. 

71. Peaking Cornuto. Sneaking cuckold. For peak, cf. Ham. 
ii. 2. 594 : — 

" Yet I, 
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, 
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause." 

Cornuto (used by S. only here) is evidently formed from the Latin 
cormt, horn. Halliwell-Phillipps quotes Witts Recreations : " Cor- 
nuto is not jealous of his wife ; " and Gallantry a la Mode, 1674 : 
" When my cornuto goes from home." 

73. Larum. Alarum (but not to be printed as that word con- 
tracted), or alarm. 

86. Distraction. Changed by Hanmer to " direction ; " but 
Falstaff ascribes the trick to Mrs. Page's invention at a time when 
Mrs. Ford was in a state of helpless distraction. 

91. That. So that ; as often. 

108. Several. Separate ; as in v. 5. 63 below. Cf. Temp. iii. I. 
42, W. T. i. 2. 438, etc. 



1.90 Notes [Act IV 

109. With. By ; as often. 

no. Bilbo. Spanish blade. See on i. i. 161 above. It was 
said that the best of these blades could be bent so as to bring hilt 
and point together without breaking. 

123. In good sadness. In all seriousness ; as in iv. 2. 90 below. 
For sad= serious, see Much Ado, i. i. 185 : "Speak you this with 
a sad brow ? " W. T. iv. 4. 316 : " in sad talk," etc. 

132. Address me to. Prepare myself for. Cf. Macb. ii. 2. 24, 
Ham. i. 2. 216, etc. 

151. Horn-mad. See on i. 4. 49 above. 



ACT IV 



Scene I. — 24. Wd^s nouns. A petty oath. See on ii. 3. 44 
above. Mrs. Quickly confounds '<?^and odd. 

45. Hinc. Changed by Halliwell-Phillipps to " hunc ; " but the 
next speech seems to imply that William has made a mistake. 
There the folios have "hing" for hung, but we are not to suppose 
that the pedagogue would blunder in declining a familiar pro- 
noun. Perhaps we should point " Hinc, — " It is possible, of 
course, that it ought to be " Hunc," the mistake being in his 
inability to give the other two forms. 

48. Hang-hog is Latin for bacon. Knight remarks: "This joke 
is in all probability derived from the traditionary anecdote of Sir 
Nicholas Bacon, which is told by Lord Bacon in his Apophthegms : 
' Sir Nicholas Bacon being judge of the Northern Circuit, when he 
came to pass sentence upon the malefactors, was by one of them 
mightily importuned to save his life. When nothing he had said 
would avail, he at length desired his mercy on account of kindred. 
Prithee, said my lord, how came that in? Why if it please you, 
my lord, your name is Bacon and mine is Hog, and in all ages 
Hog and Bacon are so near kindred that they are not to be sepa- 
rated. Ay but, replied the judge, you and I cannot be of kindred 



Scene II] Notes 191 

unless you be hanged ; for Hog is not Bacon till it be well 
hang'd.' " 

65. Hick. The dame evidently takes hie to be a verb, like 
hack, but w^hat meaning she ascribes to it is not clear. The only 
hick given in the New Eng. Diet, is = hiccup. 

78. Preeches. That is, breeched, or flogged. Cf. T. of S. iii. I. 
i8:*"I am no breeching scholar in the schools." 

81. Sprag. Sprack; that is, quick, ready. S. has the word 
only here. Coles, in his Latin Diet., has " Sprack, vegetus, vivi- 
dus, agilis." Steevens quotes Tony Aston's supplement to the Life 
of Colley Cibber : " a little lively sprack man. " Sprag is Sir 
Hugh's mispronunciation. 

■ Scene II. — i. Your sorrow, etc. My sufferings are dissipated 
at the sight of your regret. For sufferance = suff"ering, cf. Much 
Ado, V. I. 38, etc. 

2. Obsequious. Zealous, devoted. Cf. M. for M. ii. 4. 28 : " in 
obsequious fondness," etc. 

21. Lunes. Lunatic freaks, mad fancies. Cf. W. T. ii. 2. 30: 
" These dangerous unsafe lunes i' the king, beshrew them ! " In 
the present passage the folios have " lines," as in T. and C. ii. 3. 
139: " His pettish lunes." 

24. Peer out, peer out! Henley remarks: " S. here refers to 
the practice of children, when they call on a snail to push forth his 

horns : — 

' Peer out, peer out, peer out of your hole, 
Or else I '11 beat you black as coal.' " 

46. Bestow him. Put him. Cf. Temp, v. i. 299: "Hence, 
and bestow your luggage where you found it," etc. 

51. Pistols. Douce and others note the anachronism here. 
Cf. I Hen. IV. ii. 4. 380, v. 3. 53, etc. 

57. Creep into the kiln-hole. Malone suspected from Mrs. 
Ford's next speech that these words belong to Mrs. Page ; but, as 
he adds, " that may be a second thought, a correction of her former 



192 Notes [Act IV 

proposal." Some editors, however, transfer the sentence to Mrs. 
Page. 

61. Abstract, Memorandum ; the only instance of this sense 
in S. 

74. The fat woman of Bi'entford. The quarto has " Gillian of 
Brainford," who was a notorious character of the middle of the 
1 6th century. In revising the play S. chose to make the allusion 
less definite. All the early eds. have " Brainford " here and else- 
where. 

77. Thrummed hat. That is, a hat made oi thrums, or the ends 
of a weaver's warp. Cf. M. N. D. v. i. 291 : " cut thread and 
thrum." See also Elyot, Diet. 1559 : " Bardo cucullus, a thrummed 
hatte ; " Florio, 1598 : " Bernasso, a thrumbed hat ; " and Minsheu : 
" A thrummed hat, une cappe de biar." 

80. Look. Look up, look for. Cf. A. Y. L. ii. 5. 34: " to look 
you," etc. 

102. Misuse him. The 1st folio omits him, which the 2d supplies. 

105. Do not act, etc. Do not actually do what in jest we may 
pretend to do. 

106. Still swine, ^"(.c. Cf. Yates, Castell of Courtesie, 1582: "a 
proverbe olde in Englande here, the still sowe eats the draffe." 

119. Ging. Gang, pack; used by S. only here. Steevens 
cites examples of the word from Jonson, Neiv Inn and Alchemist, 
and from Milton, Stfiectymnus. 

123. Passes. See on i. i. 295 above. 

150. Pluck me, etc. For the me, see on i. 3. 57 and ii. i. 224 
above. 

155. This wrongs you. "This is below your character, un- 
worthy of your understanding, injurious to your honour " (Johnson). 

162. Show no colour, etc. That is, if I show no reason for the 
extreme course I take. I believe that it is closely connected with 
what precedes ; but the folio and some modern eds. end the sen- 
tence at extremity, making this clause imperative = suggest no 
excuse for my conduct. 



Scene III] Notes 193 

165. Leman. Lover, paramour. In the other instances of the 
word in S. (Z*. N. ii. 3. 26 and 2 Hen. IV. v. 3, 49) it is feminine. 

178. Daubery. Imposture, trickery; Hterally daubing with 
false colours. Cf. the use of daub in Rich. III. iii. 5. 29 and lear, 
iv. I. 53. By the figure apparently refers to some form of fortune- 
telling in which diagrams were used. 

187. Ronyo7t ! A scabby or mangy woman. The word occurs 
again in Macb. i. 3. 6 : " rump-fed ronyon." 

199. Cry out thus upon no trail. "The expression is taken 
from the hunters. Trail is the scent left by the passage of the 
game ; to cry out is to open or bark" (Johnson). Cf. Ham. iv. 5. 

109 : — 

" How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! 
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs ! " 

212. In fee-simple, with fine and recovery. Ritson remarks: 
" Our author had been long enough in an attorney's office to learn 
\h.2i\. fee-simple is the largest estate, ^ndfine and recovery the strong- 
est assurance, known to English law." Y ox fee-simple, cf. A. W. 
iv. 3. 312: " Sir, for a quart d'ecu he will sell the fee simple of 
his salvation," etc. Y ox fine and recovery, cf. Ham. v. i. 114: 
*' his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries," etc. 

213. He will never, I think, etc. "He will not make further 
attempts to ruin us, by corrupting our virtue, and destroying our 
reputation" (Steevens). 

218. Figures. Fancies. Schmidt compares J. C. ii. i. 231 : — 

" Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, 
Which busy care draws in the brains of men." 

223. No period. "No due conclusion" (Clarke). "White puts 
a period after y^j^*, making what follows a question. 

Scene III. — i. The Germans. Some of the commentators see 
here an allusion to the visit of Count Frederick of Mompelgard 
(afterwards Duke of Wiirtemberg and Teck) to Windsor in 1592, 

MERRY WIVES — 1 3 



194 Notes [Act IV 

and to the fact that free post-horses were granted him through 
a pass of Lord Howard's. See also on iv. 5. 70 below. 

II. Come off. " Come down with the cash," pay for it. Steevens 
and Farmer quote many examples of the expression from Massinger, 
Dckker, Heywood, Jonson, and other dramatists of the time. It 
occurs also in Chaucer, C. T. 338. 

Scene IV. — 7. With cold. Of coldness. We still say " charge 
with coldness," etc. 

II. Extreme. S. accents the word on either syllable; on the 
first chiefly when preceding the noun. Cf. R. of L. 230, T. G, of 
V. ii. 7. 22, L. L. L. V. 2. 750, etc. Submission is a quadrisyllable. 

32. Takes. Bewitches. Cf. Ham. i. i. 163: "No fairy takes, 
nor witch hath power to harm; " Lear, iii. 4. 61 : " star -blasting 
and taking," etc. 

35. Spirit. Monosyllabic; as often. See on i. 4. 23 above. 

36. Eld. Here apparently = people of the olden time. 

43. Disguised like Heme, etc. This line is not in the folios ; 
supplied by Theobald from the 1st quarto. He also inserted the 
preceding line of the quarto, " We '11 send him word to meet us in 
the field ; " but, as Malone notes, this is clearly unnecessary, and 
indeed improper, as _/f^/flf relates to what goes before in the quarto : — 

" Now for that Yalstaffe hath bene so deceiued, 
As that he dares not venture to the house, 
Weele send him word to meet vs in the field, 
Disguised like Home, with huge horns on his head." 

The last line is required by in this shape in the next speech. 

50. Urchins. Mischievous elves; probably so called because 
they sometimes took the form of urchins, or hedgehogs. Cf. Temp. 
i. 2. 326 with Id. ii. 2. 10. Ouphes were a kind of elves ; men- 
tioned again in v. 5. 54 below. 

55. Diffused. Confused, wild, irregular. Cf. Hen. V. v. 2. 61 : 
" diffus'd attire " (where the early eds. have " defused," as in Rich. 
III. i. 2. 78 and Lear, i. 4. 2). 



Scene V] Notes 195 

58. To-pinch. The editors generally adopt Tyrwhitt's sugges- 
tion that to here is the intensive particle often found prefixed to 
verbs in old English, but nearly obsolete in the time of S. Stee- 
vens quotes Holland's Pliny : " shee againe to be quit with them, 
will all to-pinch and nip both the fox and her cubs." The all is 
often thus associated with it, and in some cases the to is to be 
joined to the all (= altogether), rather than to the verb. In 
Judges, ix. 53, we find " all to brake," which some make = " all 
to-brake," and others = " all-to brake." In the present passage, 
it is possible that the to is the ordinary infinitive prefix, used with 
the second of two verbs, though omitted with the first. 

71, Vizards. Visors, or masks. Cf. vizarded'va. iv. 6. 40 below. 

74. Time. Changes have been made here ; but, time may refer 
to the time of the masque with which Falstaff is to be entertained, 
and which is the subject of this dialogue. 

79. Properties. In the theatrical sense of stage requisites. Cf. 
M. N. D. i. 2. 108 : " I will draw a bill of properties such as our 
play wants." Tricking — dresses, ornaments. 

84. Send quickly. Theobald suggested that this should be 
" Send Quickly," and Daniel adopts that reading. 

Scene V. — i. Thick-skin ? Cf. M. N. D. iii. 2. 13 : " The shal- 
lowest thick-skin of that barren sort." 

7. Standing-bed and truckle-bed. The truckle-bed or trundle-bed 
(as fifty years ago it was called in New England) was a low bed 
which could be put under the standing-bed, or ordinary bedstead. 
The master lay in the latter, and the servant in the former. John- 
son quotes Hall's Servile Tutor : — 

" He lieth in the truckle-bed, 
While his young master lieth o'er his head ; " 

and Steevens adds The Return from Parnassus : " When I lay in 
a trundle-bed under my tutor." The 1st quarto has " trundle bed " 
here. 



196 Notes [Act IV 

Painted about, etc. The hangings of beds, as of rooms, were 
often painted or embroidered with Scripture stories. Cf. i Hen. 
IV. iv. 2. 28 : " ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth ; " and 
Randolph, Muse's Looking- Glass, iii. i : — 

" Then for the painting, I bethink myself 
That I have seen in Mother Redcap's hall, 
In painted cloth, the story of the Prodigal." 

9. Anthropophaginian. Man-eater, cannibal. "The Host en- 
larges even his usual style of grandiloquence to astound and over- 
awe Simple" (Clarke). We find Anthropophagi in 0th. i. 3. 144. 

18. Ephesian. A cant term of the time = "jolly companion." 
It occurs again in 2 Hen. IV. ii. 2. 164. Cf. Corinthian in i Hen. 
IV. ii. 4. 13: "a Corinthian, a lad of mettle." 

26. Wise woman. Fortune-teller, or witch. Cf. 103 below. 
Hey wood's Wise Woman of Hogsden has such a character for its 
heroine. Cf. T. N. iii. 4. 1 14 : " Carry his water to the wise woman." 
Ste evens refers to Judges, v. 29. 

28. Mussel-shell. " He calls poor Simple mussel-shell because 
he stands with his mouth open" (Johnson). 

31. Thorough. Used interchangeably with through, even in 
prose. See on throughly, i. 4. 90 above. 

44,45. Conceal. Farmer would "correct" this into "reveal." 
The Host repeats the blunder for the joke of the thing. 

54. Like who more bold. That is, like the boldest. Daniel and 
some other editors adopt Farmer's conjecture of "Ay, Sir Tike, 
who," etc. Tike (= cur) was often used as a term of contempt ; 
as in Hen. F. ii. i. 31 : " Base tike, callest thou me host ? " 

57. Clerkly. Scholarly, learned ; the only instance of the word 
in S. Cf. clerklike in W. T. i. 2. 392. 

61. But was paid, etc. For the play on paid (= punished), cf. 
Cymb. V. 4. 166 : "sorry you have paid too much, and sorry that you 
are paid too much." 

69. Slough. Stokes thinks the word should be printed with a 



Scene VI] Notes 197 

capital, as including " a local allusion as well as a pun " (^Slough is 
the name of a town near Windsor) ; but this is doubtful. 

70. Doctor Faustuses. Marlowe's play, Doctor Faustus, on the 
subject had already made the name familiar. 

79. Cozen-germans. The blundering play on cousin-german is 
obvious. The i st quarto reads : — 

" For there is three sorts of cosen garmombles, 
\s cosen all the Host of Maidenhead & Readings." 

The " garmombles " seems to be an intentional inversion of Mb'm- 
pelgard. See on iv. 3. i above. This reference to the visit of the 
Germans has led some critics to date the first draft of the play in 
1592; but, as Dowden remarks, the inference is unwarrantable, 
" for such an event would be remembered, and the more so because 
of the Duke's subsequent unavailing attempt [in 1595] to obtain 
the honour of the Garter." 

100. Liquor fishermen^ boots. Cf. I Hen. IV. ii. i. 94. Halli- 
well-Phillipps quotes Walk Knaves Walk, 1659: "They are people 
who will not put on a boot which is not as well liquored as them- 
selves." 

102. As a dried pear. " Pears, when they are dried, become 
flat, and lose the erect and oblong form that distinguishes them 
from apples" (Steevens). 

103. Primero. The fashionable game at cards in the poet's 
time. Cf. Hen. VIII. v. i. 7, the only other mention of it in S. 

108. His dam. See on i. i. 149 above. 

Scene VI. — 14. Larded. Garnished, or mingled. Cf. Ham. 
iv. 5. 37 : " Larded with sweet flowers." 

20. Present. Represent, play th-e part of. See M. N. D. iii. I. 
62, 69, iii. 2. 14, V. I. 132, etc. 

21. Is here. That is, in the letter. 

22. While other jests, etc. *' While they are hotly pursuing other 
merriment of their own" (Steevens), 



198 Notes [Act V 

41. Quaint. Fine, elegant. Cf. its use of feminine dress in 
T. of S. iv. 3. 102 and Much Ado, iii. 4. 22. 
52. Husband your device. That is, carry it out. Cf. 71 of S. 

ind. I. 68 : — 

" It will be pastime passing excellent, 
If it be husbanded with modesty." 



ACT V 

Scene I. — i. I ''II hold. I '11 keep the engagement. Palsgrave 
has : " I holde it, as we say when we make a bargen, j'V le Hens." 

3. There ^s divinity in odd numbers. Steevens quotes Virgil, 
Eel. viii. 75 : " numero deus impare gaudet " (the god delights in 
an odd number). 

9. Mince. Here = be off, go ; literally = to walk with small 
steps or affectedly. Cf. AI. of V. iii. 4. 67 : — 

" and turn two mincing steps 
Into a manly stride." 

14. Went you not, etc. Daniel remarks: "The plot, as we have 
seen [see on iii. 5. I above] is hopelessly entangled already, but 
Ford now puts the finishing touch to it. Referring to the second 
meeting, which took place on the morning of the very day on which 
he is speaking, he asks Falstaff, ' Went you not to her yesterday, 
sir, as you told me you had appointed ? ' and Falstaff is not sur- 
prised, but gives him an account of the cudgelling he had received, 
as Mother Prat, on the morning of the day on which the question 
is asked." 

24. Life is a shuttle. Falstaff has in mind Job, vii. 6. 

26. Plucked geese. Pulling the feathers from a live goose was 
then a boyish piece of mischief. See my Shakespeare the Boy, 
p. 132. 

Scene II. — i. Couch. Hide. Cf. Much Ado, iii. i. 30, etc. 
5. Nay-word. See on ii. 2. 126 above. 



Scene V] Notes 199 

6. Mum . . . budget. Halliwell-Phillipps quotes, among other 
illustrations of the combination, Cotgrave, Fr. Did. : " Avoir le 
bee gele, to play mumbudget, to be tongue-tyed, to say never a 
word ; " and Ulysses upon Ajax, 1596 : " Mum budget, not a word." 

Scene III. — 19. Amazed. Bewildered, confused. Cf. v. 5. 227 
below. See also iii. 3. 119 above. 

23. Lewdsters, Used by S. only here. It would properly be 
feminine. See on whitsters, iii. 3. 14 above. 

The couplet is really a "tag" (see p. 144 above), though a line 
is added. 

Scene V. — 18. Scut. Strictly = the tail of a hare or rabbit, but 
sometimes applied as here to that of other animals. S. has the 
word only here. 

20. Green Sleeves. See on ii. i. 61 above. 

Kissing- comfits. Sugar-plums used to sweeten the breath. Cf. 
W. T. iv. 4. 163: "To mend her kissing with." 

Eringoes. The plant known as the " sea-holly ; " popularly sup- 
posed to have aphrodisiac properties, as potatoes (the sweet potato) 
also were, on their first introduction into England. 

25. Bribed buck. Halliwell-Phillipps says that bribed ^= ^\.(Aq.u. 
He quotes Palsgrave : " I bribe, I pull, I pyll " ( = pillage, as in 
Rich. III. i. 3. 159, etc.). Schmidt explains bribed as =: sent as a 
bribe or present. Singer says : " A bribed buck was a buck cut up 
to be given away in portions. Bribes in old French were portions 
or fragments of meat which were given away." 

27. The fellotv of this walk. The keeper of this division of the 
forest. The shoulders of the deer were a part of his perquisites. 
Holinshed (quoted by Steevens) says : " The keeper by a custom 
. , . hath the skin, head, umbles, chine, and shoulders." 

28. Woodman. A hunter ; often used in a wanton sense. Cf, 
M. for M. iv. 3. 1 70 : " he is a better woodman than thou takest 
him for." 

39. The stage-direction of the foHo is simply " Enter Fairies ; " 



200 Notes [Act V 

but " Qui.^^ and " Qzi^ are prefixed to the speeches of the Fairy 
Queen that follow, and ^^ Fist^ to those of Hobgoblin. From this 
it has been assumed by some of the editors that Mistress Quickly 
and Pistol are the persons who take these parts. But, as Malone 
remarks, they are ill suited to the parts, and are not mentioned in 
the arrangements for the masque in iv. 6 above. It is probable 
that their names were introduced here by some mistake. The 
' Quiy may be a slip for Qzi. = Qtceen, not Quickly ; and " Pist.^^ 
may be accounted for, either by supposing, as Capell did, that the 
same actor who represented Pistol took also the role of Hobgoblin, 
or that, as Mr. Fleay believes (^Literary World, June 19, 1880, 
p. 216), " Pisty is a mistaken reading of P. or Puc. for Puck. 
It may be noted, incidentally, that " Puc.^'' and " QuP some- 
times occur as prefixes to speeches by Hobgoblin and Titania in 
M, N. D. In the quarto the stage-direction has " Enter . . . mis- 
tresse Quickly, like the Queene of Fayries," and the prefix to her 
speeches is " QuicP or " QuickC In the revision of the play this 
scene was entirely rewritten and much extended ; and the part of 
the fairy queen was transferred from Mrs. Quickly to Anne Page, 
who in the earlier sketch was to be merely " like a little Fayrie." 

White takes the ground that the part assigned to Anne in iv. 6 
was transferred to Mrs. Quickly in carrying out the plot of Fenton 
and Anne to deceive the old folks. He says : " the determination 
of Page and Mrs. Page that their daughter should play the fairy 
queen is exactly the reason why she did not play it ; for, as she 
assures her lover in her letter, she meant to deceive both, and 
she did so. She, Fenton, and Mrs. Quickly arranged that matter 
easily ; and she neither wore green or white, nor played the fairy 
queen." The Cambridge editors also suggest that Mrs. Quickly 
" may have agreed to take Anne's part to facilitate her escape with 
Fenton ; " but this seems less probable than that a prefix in the 
folio was misprinted. 

41. Orphan heirs of fixed destiny. "Beings created orphans by 
fate ; in allusion to supposed spontaneous and ex-natural births, 



Scene V] Notes 201 

such as Merlin's, and others of his stamp, holding place in popular 
superstition, who were believed to have been born without father " 
(Clarke). Cf. 2 Hen. IV. iv. 4. 122: "Unfather'd heirs, and 
loathly births of nature." Warburton asks " Why orphan heirs ? 
Destiny, to whom they succeeded, was in being." White replies: 
"The fairies, however, were not Destiny's heirs or children, but 
the inheritors of a fixed destiny. Freed from human vicissitudes 
and deprived of human aspirations, a fixed destiny was the estate to 
which they were heirs, not the being to whom they succeeded." 
Either this explanation or Clarke's (which is perhaps to be pre- 
ferred, on account of the parallel passage in 2 Hen. IV.) amply 
justifies the retention of the folio reading, which others than 
Warburton have questioned. 

42. Quality. Profession ; as in Hen. V. iii. 6. 146 : " What is 
thy name ? I know thy quality," etc. 

43. Hobgoblin. The Puck of the M. N. D. Cf. that play, ii. i. 
40: "Those that Hobgoblin call you or sweet Puck," etc. Oyes = 
oyez (hear), the beginning of the crier's proclamation, used at the 
opening of courts, etc. 

44. Toys ! Trifles. Cf. M. N. D. \. i. z, A. Y. L. iii. 3. 77, 
W. T. iii. 3. 39, etc. 

46. Unrak'd. That is, not properly raked up, or put in order 
for the night. 

47. Bilberry, The whortleberry ; mentioned by S. only here. 

48. On the fairy hatred of sluttery, cf. M. N. D.v. i. 396 : — 

" I am sent with broom before 
To sweep the dust behind the door " 

(that is, where the careless maids neglect to sweep). Cf. also 
Browne, Brit. Pastorals : — 

" where oft the fairy queen 
At twilight sat and did command her elves 
To pinch those maids that had not swept their shelves ; " 



202 Notes [Act V 

Herrick, Hesperides : — 

"If ye will with Mab finde grace. 
Set each platter in its place ; 
Rake the fire up and fet 
Water in ere sun be set, 
Wash your pales and cleanse your dairies ; 
Sluts are loathsome to the fairies : 
Sweep your house ; who doth not so, 
Mab will pinch her by the toe ; " 

Bishop Corbet's Farewell to the Fairies : — 

" Farewell, rewards and fairies. 

Good housewives now may say ; 
For now fowle sluts in dairies 

Do fare as well as they : 
And though they sweepe their hearths no lesse 

Than maides were wont to doe, 
Yet who of late for cleanlinesse 

Findes sixpence in her shooe ? " 

and Drayton, Nymphidia : — 

" These make our girls their sluttery rue, 
By pinching them both black and blue, 
And put a penny in their shoe, 

The house for cleanly sweeping." 

Nash, in his Terrors of the Night, 1594, remarks that "the Robin 
Goodfellowes, elfes, fairies, hobgoblins of our latter age, . . . pincht 
maids in their sleep that swept not their houses cleane," etc. So 
in Robin Goodfellow ; his mad prankes, etc., 1628, we read : "many 
mad prankes would they play, as pinching of sluts black and blue, 
and misplacing things in ill-ordered houses ; but lovingly would 
they use wenches that cleanly were, giving them silver and other 
pretty toyes, which they would leave for them, sometimes in their 
shooes, other times in their pockets, sometimes in bright basons 
and other cleane vessels." 



Scene V] Notes 203 

In a poem in Poole's English Parnassus, Mab is spoken of as — 

" She that pinches country wenches^ 
If they rub not clean their benches ; 
And with sharper nails remembers, 
When they rake not up the embers ; " 

and in a song in the same volume we find these stanzas : — 
" And if the house be foul, 
Or platter, dish, or bowl. 
Up stairs we nimbly creep, 
And find the sluts asleep ; 
Then we pinch their arms and thighs, 
None escapes, nor none espies. 

But if the house be swept, 
And from uncleanness kept, 
We praise the household maid, 
And surely she is paid ; 
For we do use before we go 
To drop a tester in her shoe." 

50. Wink. Shut my eyes ; a common meaning in S. See 
2 Hen. IV. i. 3. 33, Hen. V. ii. i. 8, iii. 7. 153, v. 2. 327, etc. 

53. Raise up the organs of her fantasy. Warburton assumes 
that this must mean " inflame her imagination with sensual ideas," 
and therefore changes Raise to " Rein ; " but, as Steevens says, the 
meaning may be " elevate her ideas above sensuality, exalt them to 
the noblest contemplation." Malone paraphrases the passage thus : 
" Go you, and wherever you find a maid asleep that hath thrice 
prayed to the Deity, though, in consequence of her innocence, she 
sleep as soundly as an infant, elevate her fancy, and amuse her 
tranquil mind with some delightful vision." Clarke also explains 
the passage as = " exalt her imagination by pleasant dreams." 
Hudson, on the other hand, says that ^^ fantasy here stands for 
sensual desire, the 'sinful fantasy' reproved afterwards in the 
fairies' song ; " and White takes the same ground. I cannot see 
Vfhy fantasy should be = sinful fantasy, when it has no such sense 



204 Notes [Act V 

elsewhere in S. ; nor why the imagination of a maid, and one who 
has thrice said her prayers before falHng asleep, should be supposed 
to play such wicked tricks with her. 

63. Chairs of order. The seats of the Knights of the Garter. 

64. With juice of balm, eic. It was an old custom to rub tables, 
chairs, etc., with aromatic herbs. Pliny says that the Romans did 
the same, to drive away evil spirits (Steevens). 

65. Several. Separate. See on iii. 5. 108 above. Instalment = 
seat of installation. 

69. Expressure. Expression, or impression. Cf. T. and C. iii. 
3. 204 and T. N. ii. 3. 171. 

71. Pense. A dissyllable here, as in French verse. 

75. Character)/. Writing; as again m /. C. ii. I. 308: "All 
the charactery of my sad brows." In both passages it is accented 
on the second syllable. Cf. also character (= handwriting) in 
M. for M. iv. 2. 208, Hajn. iv. 7. 53, etc. 

82. Middle-earth. " Spirits are supposed to inhabit the ethereal 
regions, and fairies to dwell underground ; men therefore are in a 
middle station " (Johnson). Early English writers often use middle- 
earth in this sense. 

85. O'erlook'd. Bewitched by the " evil eye." Cf. M. of V. iii. 

2.15: — 

" Beshrew your eyes, 
They have o'erlook'd me and divided me." 

86. With trial-fire, etc. Steevens cites Beaumont and Fletcher, 
Faithful Shepherdess : — 

" In this flame his finger thrust, 
Which will burn him if he lust ; 
But if not, away will turn. 
As loth unspotted flesh to burn." 

88. Turn him to no pain. Cf. Temp. i. 2. 64: "To think o' 
the teen that I have turn'd you to ; " Cor. iii. i. 284 : "The which 
shall turn you to no further harm," etc. 



Scene V] Notes 205 

94. After this speech Theobald inserts from the quarto : " Evans. 
It is right, indeed, he is full of lecheries and iniquity." 

96. Luxury. Lasciviousness ; the only sense in S. Cf. Hen. V. 
iii. 5. 6, Rich. III. iii. 5. 80, Ham. i. 5. ^2>^ etc. So luxurious = 
lustful ; as in Much Ado, iv. i. 42, etc. 

97. A bloody fire. "The fire i' the blood" (^Tejnp. iv. I. 53). 
105. Watch'' d you. Caught you by lying in wait for you. Cf. 

2 Hen. VI. i. 4. 45 : " Beldam, I think we watch'd you at an 
inch " (cf. 58 just below). 

107. Hold up the jest. ^ Cf. M. N. D. iii. 2. 239 : " hold the 
sweet jest up," etc. 

109. These fair yokes. The 1st folio has "yoakes," the 2d 
" okes ; " and some modern eds. read " oaks." Yokes, if it be 
what S. wrote, may allude to the branching antlers on Falstaff's 
head, which bore some resemblance to the projections on the top 
of ox-yokes. Halliwell-Phillipps says that the allusion is " unques- 
tionably " to the horns " fastened with a substantial bandage, pass- 
ing over the head and tied under the chin." According to the 
other reading, the antlers are compared to the branches of oaks. 

131. Jack-a-Lenf. See on iii. 3. 27 above. 

143. A coxcomb of frize. A fool's cap of frize, a woollen fabric 
for which Wales was famous. For frize, cf. 0th. ii. i. 127; and 
for the coxcomb, see Lear, i. 4. 105, 109, 114, etc. 

156. Hodge-pudding. Probably a pudding somewhat like a 
hodge-podge, or hotch-potch. The word has not been found 
elsewhere. 

158. Intolerable entrails. Monstrous bowels. 

167. Flannel. "The very word is derived from a Welch one, 
so that it is almost unnecessary to add that flannel was originally 
the manufacture of Wales" (Steevens). 

Ignorance itself is a plunimet over me. "I am so enfeebled that 
ignorance itself weighs me down and oppresses me " (Johnson) ; 
" ignorance itself is not so low as I am, by the length of a plummet 
line " (Tyrwhitt) ; " ignorance itself points out my deviations from 



(2o6 Notes [Act V 

rectitude " (Henley and White) ; " ignorance itself can sound the 
depths of my shallowness in this " (Clarke and Schmidt) . Staun- 
ton quotes Shirley, Love in a Maze, iv. 2: "What, art melancholy? 
What hath hung plummets on thy nimble soul?" The only other 
instances of the \nox^ plummet in S. are Temp. iii. 3. loi and v. i. 
56, which favour Clarke's explanation, though Tyrwhitt's is on the 
whole preferable. 

174. Affliction. After this speech, Theobald inserts the follow- 
ing from the quarto : — 

" Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband let that go to make amends ; 
Forgive that sum, and so we '11 all be friends. 
Ford. Well, here 's my hand ; all 's forgiven at last." 

176. A posset. See on i. 4. 7 and iii. 5. 29 above. Clarke re- 
marks : " There is something especially cordial in the introduction 
of this proposal from the good-natured yeoman. Master Page ; it 
serves to keep the jest upon Falstaff within the range of comedy- 
banter, and to show that he is included in the general reconcilia- 
tion which closes the play." 

1 79-18 1, Daniel plausibly suggests that this may be corrupt 
verse, and should read : — 

" Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be my daughter, 
She is by this time Doctor Caius' wife." 

192. Swinged. Whipped, Cf. K.John, ii. i. 288, etc. 

194. Postmaster'' s boy. Steevens inserts here from the quarto : — 

" Evans. Jeshu ! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry boys ? 
Page. O, I am vex'd at heart ! What shall I do ? " 

227. Amaze. Bewilder, confuse. Cf. K. John, iv. 3. 140 : " I 
am amaz'd, methinks, and lose my way," etc. 

234. Unduteous title. Title of unduteousness. For ifzV/^ "wile," 
" will," etc., have been substituted ; but title simply repeats the 
name of the preceding line. 

235. Evitate. Avoid ; used by S. only here. 



Scene V] NoteS 207 

242. Stand. The station or hiding-place of a huntsman waiting 
for game. Cf. Cymb. iii. 4. 1 1 1 : — 

" Why hast thou gone so far, 
To be unbent when thou hast ta'en thy stand, 
The elected deer before thee ? " 

See* also Id. ii. 3. 75, L. L. L. iv. i. 10, and 3 Hen. VI. iii. i. 3. 
Some of the editors appear to suppose that stands were only for the 
use of lady hunters, but it is evident from some of these passages 
that this is a mistake. In Cymb., for instance, Pisanio is addressed, 
and in 3 Hen. VI. a Keeper. 

246. All sorts of deer are chased. " Young and old, does as well 
as bucks. He alludes to Fenton's having just run down Anne Page " 
(Malone). " Falstaff here takes a final chuckle over those who 
have defeated his pursuit of the dear merry wives, by showing 
them that their dear daughter has been caught by the man who 
was not their choice, but hers " (Clarke). 

Before this line Pope and Theobald insert from the quarto : 
" Evajts \_aside to Fenton\ I will dance and eat plums at your 
wedding." Johnson regrets the omission of the following, which 
the quarto gives after 243 : — 

" Mi. For. Come mistris Page, lie be bold with you, 
Tis pitie to part loue that is so true. 

Mis. Pa. Altho that I haue missed in my intent, 
Yet / am glad my husbands match was crossed, 
Here M. Yenton, take her, and God giue thee ioy. 

Sir Hu : Come M. Page, you must needs agree. 

F<3. I yfaith sir come, you see your wife is wel pleased : 

Fa. I cannot tel, and yet my hart's well eased. 
And yet it doth me good the Doctor missed. 
Come hither Yenton, and come hither daughter, 
Go too you might haue staid for my good will. 
But since your choise is made of one you loue. 
Here take her, Yenton, & both happie proue. 

Sir Hu. /wil also dance & eate plums at your weddings." 



2o8 Notes [Act V 

247. Muse. "Foster my grudge." Schmidt, who thus explains 
it, defines the verb as = " to give one's self up to thought, particu- 
larly of a painful nature," in T. G. of V. ii. i. 176 and/. C. ii. i. 
240. Here it may simply mean " wonder about it, or puzzle myself 
over it." 



APPENDIX 

Comments on Some of the Characters 

Charles Cowden-Clarke (whose Shakespeare Characters, pub- 
lished in 1863, is out of print and not to be found in many of the 
libraries), after referring (see p. 19 above) to the " purely English" 
character of the play, remarks : — 

"The dramatis personce, too, perfectly harmonize, and are in 
strict keeping with the scene. They are redolent of health and 
good-humour — that moral and physical sunshine. 

" There are the two ' Merry Wives ' themselves. What a picture 
we have of buxom, laughing, ripe beauty ! ready for any frolic 
'that may not sully the chariness of their honesty.' . . . Then, 
there is Page, the very personification of hearty English hospitality. 
You feel the tight grasp of his hand, and see the honest sparkle of 
his eye, as he leads in the wranglers with, ' Come, gentlemen, I 
hope we shall drink down all unkindness.' If I were required to 
point to the portrait of a genuine, indigenous Englishman, through- 
out the whole of the works of Shakespeare, Page would be the 
man. Every thought of his heart, every motion of his body, appears 
to be the result of pure instinct ; he has nothing exotic or artificial 
about him. He possesses strong yeoman sense, an unmistakable 
speech, a trusting nature, and a fearless deportment ; and these are 
the characteristics of a true Englishman. He is to be gulled — no 
man more so ; and he is gulled every day in the year — no proof, 
you will say, of his ' strong yeoman sense ; ' but an Englishman is 
quite as frequently gulled with his eyes open as when they are hood- 
winked. He has a conceit in being indifferent to chicanery. He 
confides in his own strength when it behooves him to exert it ; and 
then he abates the nuisance. . . . 

MERRY WAIVES — 1 4 209 



2IO Appendix 

" Mrs. Page is a sprightly, sensible, quick-witted woman, who 
deserves her husband's confidence — and has it — by her faithful, 
true-hearted allegiance to him ; who secures and preserves his 
love by her cheerful spirits, and blithe good-humour ; and who 
seconds her husband in all his hospitable, peace-making schemes ; 
for, at the end of the play, she says, ' Let us every one go home, 
and laugh this sport o'er by a country fire — Sir John and all.' Jn 
short, they are a perfectly worthy couple — worthy of each other, in 
their good temper, good faith, and excellent good sense. 

" Slender comes out in this play with extraordinary force. He 
and Falstaff are the persons who at once present themselves to the 
imagination, when it is referred to. What a speaking portrait we 
have of Slender in the conversation between Mrs. Quickly and his 
man Simple ! His * little wee face, with a little yellow beard — a 
cane-coloured beard.' He is a 'tall fellow, too, of his hands, as 
any is, between this and his head.' The humorous, quaint, and 
witty old Fuller says : ' Your men that are built six stories high have 
seldom much in their cockloft.' But Master Slender hath earned 
a reputation, at all events, with his serving-man ; he hath * fought 
with a warrener.' And he doth not hide his pretensions to valour, 
especially from the woxnen, or his station in society. He takes 
care that Anne Page shall know he ' keeps three men and a boy, 
till his mother be dead ; ' and that he lives like a * poor gentleman 
born.' He says this before Anne, not to her. 

" It is interesting to note the distinction that Shakespeare has 
made in drawing the two fools, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Master 
Slender. The difference between them seems to be that Andrew 
is stupid, awkward, and incompetent, and fails in all cases from 
lack of ideas to help him in his need : if he had these, his stock of 
conceit would carry him through and over anything ; but he is a 
coward as w^ell as a fool. Slender possesses not only the deficien- 
cies of Aguecheek, but he is bashful, even to sheepishness. This 
quality makes him uniformly dependent on one or another for sup- 
port, . . . and yet, withal, in little non-essentials of conduct and 



Appendix an 

character, he is not so perfect a fool but that he has the tact to dis- 
play his accomplishments to win his mistress's favour. . . . Hav- 
ing insinuated his rank and * possibilities,' what love-diplomacy can 
surpass the patronizing, and the magnanimous indifference with 
which he introduces the subject of his courage ? Anne is sent to 
entreat him to dinner : — 

' Slender. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruised my shin 
the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence, 
— three veneys for a dish of stewed prunes — and, by my troth, I cannot 
abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark so ? be 
there bears i' the town ? 

Anne. I think there are, sir ; I heard them talked of. 

Slender. I love the sport well ; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as 
any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you 
not? 

Anne. Ay, indeed, sir. 

Slender. That 's meat and drink to me, now. I have seen Sacker- 
son loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain ; but, I warrant 
you, the women have so cried and shrieked at it that it passed. But 
women, indeed, can't abide 'em; they are very ill-favoured rough 
things.' 

" Does not this precisely tally with Mrs. Quickly's description of 
the man, that he ' holds up his head, as it were, and struts in his 
gait?' . . . 

"That is an excellent touch of worldly prudence on the part of 
Anne's father, by the way, brought in to justify his objection to the 
addresses of Fenton ; not only for his * riots past and wild societies,' 
his being * galled in his expense,' which he ' seeks to heal ' by an 
alliance with his daughter : but Page, moreover, being a plain, 
unaspiring yeoman, is also unfavourable to Fenton, on account ot 
his being 'too great of birth,' This simple, fleeting expression 
places the whole character of the father before us in perfect integ- 
rity and consistency. ... It also prepares us for Fenton's honest 
justification of himself. And here we have one of Shakespeare's 



212 Appendix 

lessons in wisdom — in the matrimonial contract to avoid everything 
in the shape of duplicity and mental reservation — most especially 
before the fulfilment of it. This passage in Fenton's courtship is 
the only one which gives him an interest with us as a lover, because 
it raises him in our esteem ; and with the confession, it is natural 
that Anne should promote his suit. In answer to his report of her 
father's objection to him, that * 't is impossible he should love her 
but as a property,' like a sensible girl, she candidly replies, ' May be 
he tells you true ; ' and he as candidly and fervently replies : — 

' No, heaven so speed me in my time to come ! 
Albeit, I will confess, thy father's wealth 
Was the first motive that I woo 'd thee, Anne, 
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value 
Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags ; 
And 't is the very riches of thyself 
That now I aim at.' 

The consummation of his good sense and steadiness of character 
appears at the close of the play ; and Shakespeare's own matri- 
monial morality is displayed, where Fenton succeeds in carrying off 
Anne, in the teeth of Page and his wife, who each wanted to force 
her into a money-match. Fenton's rebuke is excellent ; and the 
father and mother's reconciliation perfectly harmonizes with their 
frank and generous dispositions. Fenton says : — 

' Hear the truth of it. 
You would have married her most shamefully, 
Where there was no proportion held in love. 

^ ■^ ^ ^ ^ y^ ^^ 

The offence is holy that she hath committed ; 

And this deceit loses the name of craft. 

Of disobedience, or unduteous title ; 

Since therein she doth evitate and shun 

A thousand irreligious cursed hours, 

Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.' 



Appendix 213 

" Next in order comes the good-natured but peppery Welsh par- 
son, Sir Hugh. . . . The country parish priests in those days were 
a different class of men from the present members of the Establish- 
ment : nevertheless, some scattered remnants of the old brother- 
hood may still be met with in those secluded villages where the 
high post and railroads swerve in the distance : men of almost 
indiscriminate sociality, taking an inoffensive part in the pastimes 
and homely mirth of the parishioners. I knew a gentleman who 
well remembered Dr. Young, the eminent author of the Night 
Thoughts, vcl his rectory at Welwyn, in Hertfordshire. He had 
dined at his table on the Sunday, when he and any of his school- 
fellows had acquitted themselves creditably during the week at the 
grammar school. Among other personal anecdotes, he told me 
that he had constantly seen him playing at bowls on the Sunday, 
after he had preached the words of peace and goodwill and eter- 
nal salvation to his flock. He not only tolerated, but even pro- 
moted, that harmless recreation ; at the same time he had a keen 
eye and a reproof for all who were truants at the hour of prayer. 

" Sir Hugh Evans stands not aloof from the plot to get Anne a 
good husband ; and he is master of the band of fairies to pinch 
and worry the fat knight in the revelry under Heme's oak. . . . 
And he was an actor, too, as well as manager of the revels ; for 
Falstaff says while they are tormenting him : * Heavens defend me 
from that Welsh fairy ! lest he transform me into a piece of cheese ! ' 
Even in the noted scene of the duel with Doctor Caius, although 
the honest preacher is forced into a ludicrous predicament by the 
hoax of mine host of the Garter, yet our kindly feeling for Sir 
Hugh remains unimpaired. It is true, he waxeth into a tremendous 
Welsh passion : he is full of ' melancholies ' and ' tremplings of 
mind ; ' moreover, not being a professed duellist, his self-possession 
is not conspicuous : he sings a scrap of a madrigal and a line of a 
psalm, and mixes both. But when the belligerents do meet, and 
he finds that they have been fooled by the whole party, he is the 
one to preserve their mutual self-respect : ' Pray you, let us not be 



214 Appendix 

laughing-stogs to other men's humours ; I desire you in friendship, 
and I will one way or other make you amends. He has made us 
his vlouting-stog ; and let us knog our prains together, to be re- 
venge on this same scall, scurvy, cogging companion, the host of 
the Garter.' And the way in which he revenges himself is — like 
a practical teacher of the ' Sermon on the Mount ' — to come and 
put the host on his guard against trusting the Germans with his 
horses. . . . 

" Dame Quickly makes herself necessary to all, by reason of her 
fussiness, and conspicuous by reason of her folly. . . . She med- 
dles in every one's affair : she acts the go-between for Falstaff with 
the two merry wives ; she courts Anne Page for her master, under- 
taking the same office for Slender. She favours the suit of Fenton ; 
and if the Welsh parson had turned an eye of favour upon the yeo- 
man's pretty daughter, she would have played the hymeneal Hebe 
to him too. Her whole character for mere busy-bodying is com- 
prised in that one speech when Fenton gives her the ring for his 
'sweet Nan.' After he has gone out, she says : 'Now heaven send 
thee good fortune ! A kind heart he hath ; a woman would run 
through fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet, I would my 
master had Mistress Anne ; or I would Master Slender had her ; or, 
in sooth, I would Master Fenton had her. I will do what I can for 
them all three : for so I have promised, and I will be as good as my 
word ; but speciously for Master Fenton.' . . . Like a true potterer, 
she interferes in every conversation, and elbows herself in wherever 
she sees business going on. Sir Hugh cannot even examine the 
little boy Page in his Latin exercise but she must put in her com- 
ments. . . . 

" The Merry Wives of Windsor is all movement and variety from 
the first scene to the very last ; and the last ends in a rich piece of 
romance. Dr. Johnson is right in his estimate when he says, ' Its 
general power, that power by which works of genius shall finally 
be tried, is such that perhaps it never yet had reader or spectator 
who did not think it too soon at an end.' " 



Appendix 215 

The Time-Analysis of the Play 

As Mr. P. A. Daniel shows in his paper " On the Times or Dura- 
tions of the Action of Shakspere's Plays " ( Trans, of New Shaks. 
Soc. 1877-79, p. 124 fol.), it is impossible, as the play now stands, 
to make out any consistent time-division of it. The chief difficulty 
is in the confusion with reference to Falstaff's meetings with Mrs. 
Ford, which he states as follows (cf. note on iii. 5. i above) : — 

" The first meeting, which ends with the buck-basket, takes place 
between ten and eleven on one morning ; the second meeting is 
determined for the morrow of the first, and actually follows it ; but 
yet the invitation to it and its actual occurrence are fixed by the 
play at an earlier hour of the same day as that on which the first 
takes place ; and when it has thus got in advance of the first. Ford 
refers to the first as being before it. And the confusion does not 
end here, for on the very day of the second meeting Ford refers to 
that second meeting as having taken place on the ' yesterday,' and 
thus the third meeting, which is on the night of the day of the 
second, is driven forward to the night of the day following it. . . . 

" The chief error, then, lies in sc. v. of Act III. ; that scene 
must, I think, have been formed by the violent junction — I cannot 
call it fusion — of two separate scenes representing portions of two 
separate days. The first part of the scene — Mrs. Quickly and Fal- 
staff — is inseparably connected with the day of Falstaff's first inter- 
view with Mrs. Ford ; the second part is as inseparably connected 
with the day of the second interview. The first part clearly shows 
us Falstaff in the afternoon, just escaped from his ducking in the 
Thames ; the second part as clearly shows him in the early morning 
about to keep his second appointment with Mrs. Ford. Cut this 
actual scene v. into two, ending the first with Mrs. Quickly's last 
speech — * Peace be with you, sir,' — and the main difficulty van- 
ishes, and the only change required in the text of the Folio to make 
it agree with the previous scenes is the alteration of two words. In 
her first speech Mrs. Quickly says, ' Give your worship good mor- 



21 6 Appendix 

row.' For morrow read even. In lines 45-6 she says, ' Her hus- 
band goes this morning a-birding.' For this moj'ning read in the 
morning or to-morrow morning. Not a syllable need be changed 
in the Ford part of the scene ; but with this part we might begin 
Act IV. The confusion between FalstafPs first and second inter- 
views with Mrs. Ford would be thus absolutely cured. To complete 
our task and make the text of the play perfectly accordant with its 
plot we should further alter one word in Act V. sc. i. Ford there 
says, * Went you not to her yesterday, sir ? ' etc. For yesterday 
read this morning.^'' 

Mr. Daniel believes that this error in iii. 5 never existed in the 
author's manuscript, but is " the result of some managerial attempt 
to compress the two scenes into one for the convenience of the 
stage representation ; " and that the words which he proposes to 
alter were then introduced into the folio version in order to make 
the new scene self-consistent. 

Disentangling the 2d and 3d days of the action, as Mr. Daniel 
suggests, the " time-analysis " will stand as follows : — 

"Day I. Act I. sc. i. to iv. 

" 2. Act II. sc. i. to iii., Act III. sc. i. to iv., and the Quickly 

portion of sc. v. 
" 3. The Ford portion of Act III. sc. v. to end of the Play," 



List of Characters in the Play 

The numbers in parentheses indicate the lines the characters 
have in each scene. 

Falstaff: i. i (19), 3(52); ii. 2(120); iii. .3(40), 5(105); iv. 
2(15), 5(44) ; V. 1(28), 5(65). Whole no. 488. 

Fenton: i. 4(14) ; iii. 4(27) ; iv. 6(48); v. 5(11). Whole no. 
100. 

Shallow: i. 1(55); ii. 1(20), 3(20); iii. 1(14), 2(7), 4(13) ; 
iv. 2(4) ; V. 2(4). Whole no. 137. 



Appendix 217 

Slender: i. 1(107); ii. T,{:i) '■, iii- i(3)» 2(4), 4(23); v. 2(5), 
5(18). Whole no. 163. 

Ford: ii. 1(34), 2(115); i"- 2(39)» Z^^^)^ 5(29); iv. 2(50), 
4(12); V. 1(2), 5(28). Whole no. 339. 

Page: i. 1(26) ; ii. 1(29), 3(8) ; iii. 1(16), 2(12), 3(13), 4(8) ; 
iv. 2(S), 4(22) ; V. 2(7), 5(25). Whole no. 174. 

Willimn Page : iv. 1(13). Whole no. 13. 

Eva7is: i. 1(85), 2(12); iii. 1(57), 3(15); iv. 1(39), 2(11), 
4(12), 5(9) ; V. 4(4), 5(21). V/hole no. 265. 

Caius: i. 4(44) ; ii. 3(33) ; iii. 1(13), 2(3), z{%) ; iv. 5(6) ; 
V. 3(i)> 5(6). Whole no. 114. 

Host: i. 3(11); ii. 1(12), 3(35); iii. 1(18), 2(7); iv. 3(9), 
5(32), 6(7). Whole no. 131. 

Bardolph: i. 1(6), 3(2); ii. 2(5); iii. 5(5); iv. 3(5), 5(6). 
Whole no. 29. 

Pistol: i. 1(6), 3(28); ii. 1(13), 2(7); v. 5(7). Whole no. 61. 

Nym : i. 1(6), 3(21) ; ii. 1(10). Whole no, 37. 

Robin: ii. 2(1) ; iii. 2(3), 3(11). Whole no. 15. 

Simple: i. 1(3), 2(1), 4(15) ; iii. 1(8) ; iv. 5(24). Whole no. 

51. 

• Rugby : i. 4(4) ; ii. 3(7). Whole no. ii. 

\st Servant : iii. 3(1) ; iv. 2(3). Whole no. 4. 

2d Servant : iv. 2(2). Whole no. 2. 

Mistress Ford : ii. 1(45); iii- 3(75) J iv. 2(67), 4(7); v. 3(5) 
5(10). Whole no. 209. 

Mistress Page: ii. 1(83); iii. 2(18), 3(67), 4(8); iv. 1(17), 
2(80), 4(43) ; V. 3(19), 5(26). Whole no. 361. 

Anne Page : i. 1(13) ; iii. 4(18) ; v. 5(45). Whole no. 76. 

Mistress Quickly : i. 4(103) ; ii. 1(2), 2(81) ; iii. 4(21), 5(16) j 
iv. 1(18), 5(11) ; V. 1(2). Whole no. 254. 

"^//".- iii. 2(1). Whole no. I. 

In the above enumeration parts of lines are counted as whole 
lines, making the total of the play greater than it is. The actual 



21 8 Appendix 

number of lines in each scene (Globe edition numbering) is as 
follows: i. 1(326), 2(13), 3(114), 4(180); ii. 1(248), 2(329), 
3(102); iii. 1(129), 2(93), 3(260), 4(115), 5(155); iv. 1(87), 
2(240), 3(14), 4(9.1), 5(132), 6(55) ; V. 1(32), 2(16), 3(25), 4(4), 
5(259). Whole no. in the play, 3019. 

Falstaff has more lines in the plays than any other character 
except Henry V. In addition to the 488 lines in the present play, 
Jack has 719 in I Henry IV. and 688 in 2 Henry IV., making 1895 
lines in all. Henry, as Prince and King, has 616 lines in i Henry 
IV., 308 in 2 Henry IV., and 1063 in Henry V., or 1987 lines in 
all — more than any other character in the plays. Henry IV. has 
414 lines, as Bolingbroke, in Richard II., 341 in i Henry IV., and 
294 in 2 Henry IV.^ or 1049 in all. Henry VI. has 179, 314, and 
562, respectively, in the three plays in which he figures (I do not 
count his Ghost in Richard III.), or 1055 in all. Margaret of 
Anjou has the distinction of appearing in four plays, and of having 
more lines than any other female character in Shakespeare : 33, 
317, and 279, respectively, in the Henry VI. plays, and 218 in 
Richard III., or 847 in all. Hamlet has 1569 lines, Richard III. 
1 161 (with 24 in 2 Henry VI. and 390 in 3 Henry VI., or 1575 in 
all), and lago 1117. No other character has over 900 lines in any 
one play ; and the only other important character figuring in more 
than one is Mark Antony, who has 327 lines in /. C. and 829 in 
A. and C, or 1156 in all. Many of the minor characters in the 
English historical plays appear in more than one play, and some of 
them have several hundred lines in the aggregate. 



INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES 
EXPLAINED 



a many, 184 


breed-bate, 162 




contempt, 156 


absolute (= perfect), 183 


bribed buck, 199 




conversation (= behav- 


abstract, 192 


buck-basket, 182 




iour), 165 


Actseon, 167, 181 


Bucklersbury, 184 




convey (= steal), 159 


additions (= titles), 176 


bully stale, 176 




conveyance, 184 


address me to, 190 


bully-rook, 157 




cony-catching, 150, 159 


adversary, 177 


burn daylight, 166 




coram, 148 


affecting (= affected), 168 


buttons, 't is in his, i 


3i 


Cornuto, 189 


aggravate his style, 175 


by the figure, 193 




costard, 178 


allicholy, 164 






Cotsall, 150 


allowed (= approved), 174 


Cain-coloured, 162 




couch (= hide), 198 


Amaimon, 175 


canaries, 171 




council, 149 


amaze (= bewilder), 199, 


canary, 182 




counsel (play upon), 150 


206 


career, 154 




Counter-gate, 184 


amiable (= amorous), 174 


carves, 159 




cowl-staff, 185 


anchor (figurative), 160 


Castilian, 176 




coxcomb of frize, 205 


angel (coin), 160 


Cataian, 168 




cozen-germans, 197 


Ann (play upon), 164 


cat-a-mountain, 171 




cried game ? 177 


Anthropophaginian, 196 


cavalero-justice, 168 




cry aim, 181 


aqua-vitae, 176 


chairs of order, 204 




cry out (of hounds), 193 


armigero, 148 


chalices, 188 




cry you mercy, 188 


arras, 184 


charactery, 204 




cuckoo-birds, 167 


attends (= waits for) , 156 


charge (= put to expense) , 


curtal, 167 


authentic, 174 


173 




custalorum, 148 


avised (= advised) , 153, 164 


chariness, 167 








charms (= love-charms) , 


daubery, 193 


Banbury cheese, 151 


172 




deer (play upon), 207 


Barbason, 175 


cheater (= escheator). 


161 


detection in my hand, 174 


Bede, 166 


churchman, 177 




detest (= protest), 164 


beholding (= beholden) , 


clerkly, 196 




devil's dam, 152, 197 


156 


coach-fellow, 170 




dickens, the, 181 


bestow him, 191 


cock and pie, by, 157 




diffused (= confused), 194 


bilberiy, 201 


cogging, 181, 183 




distraction, 189 


bilbo, 153, 190 


colour (metaphor) , 


187, 


divinity in odd numbers, 


blind bitch's puppies, 188 


192 




198 


bloody fire, 205 


come cut and long- 


tail. 


Doctor Faustuses, 197 


boarded me, 166 


186 




dole, 187 


bodykins, 177 


come off, 194 




doublet and hose, 180 


bold-beating, 171 


compremises, 149 




doubt (= suspect), 163 


Book of Riddles, 155 


conceited (= fanciful) 


158 


drumble, 185 


Book of Songs and Son- 


conclusions passed the ca- 




nets, 155 


reers, 154 




Edward shovel-boards. 


bottom (== ball of thread) , 


confidence (= conference), 


153 


156 


164 

219 




eld, 194 



220 Index of Words and Phrases 



engrossed opportunities, 

174 . 
entertain, 158, 160 
Ephesian, 196 
eringoes, 199 
evitate, 206 
expressure, 204 
extreme (accent), 194 
eyas-musket, 182 

fall (= fault), 156 

fallow (colour), 150 

fap, 154 

farthingale, 184 

fault (= misfortune) , 150 

fee-simple, 193 

fellow of this walk, 199 

fico, 159 

fights (naval), 172 

figures (= fancies), 193 

fine and recovery, 193 

flannel, 205 

Flemish drunkard, 165 

foin, 176 

foolish carrion, 185 

Fortune thy foe, 184 

frampold, 172 

French thrift, etc., 161 

frize, 205 

froth and lime, 158 

fullams (dice), 161 

Gallia (= Wales), 180 

gallimaufry, 167 

garmombles, 197 

geminy, 170 

ging, 192 

give us leave, 173 

go to, 164 

good even and twenty, 

168 
good-year, 164 
gourds (dice), 161 
grated upon, 170 
great chamber, 152 
Green Sleeves, 166, 199 
groat, 153 
Guiana, 161 
guts, 161 

hack, 165 
had rather, 184 
hair (= nature), 176 
hang-hog is Latin, etc., 
190 



happy man be his dole ! 
187 

hardest voice, 160 

have with you, 169 

having (= property), 182 

haviour, 161 

heart of elder, 176 

Herod of Jewry, 165 

hick (verb), 191 

high men (dice), 161 

Hobgoblin, 201 

hodge-pudding, 205 

hold (= keep an engage- 
ment), 198 

hold up the jest, 205 

honesty (= chastity), 166 

horn-mad, 163, 190 

humour, 151, 154 

Hungarian, 158 

husband your device, 198 

ignorance a plummet, 205 
impatient (metre), 187 
in counsel, 150 
in good sadness, 199 
in his buttons, 't is, 181 
instance (= example), 175 
intention (=aim), 161 
intolerable entrails, 205 

Jack, 163 

Jack-a-Lent, 183, 205 
jay (= harlot), 183 
juice of balm, 204 

Keisar, 158 
kibes, 159 

kissing-comfits, 199 
knights will hack, 165 
knit a knot in his fortunes, 
182 

labras, 153 
larded, 197 
larum, 189 
latten, 153 
leman, 193 
lewdsters, 199 
lie (= lodge), 168, 172 
like who more bold, 196 
liking (= bodily condi- 
tion), 166 
lingered, 181 
liming sack, 158 
liquor boots, 197 
liver (seat of love), 167 



look (= look for) , 192 
low men (dice), 161 
luces, 148 
lunes, 191 
lurch, 171 
luxury, 205 

Machiavel, 180 

made (=did), 170 

make a shaft or a bolt of 

it, 186 
marring (play upon), 149 
marry trap, 154 
master offence, 156 
me (expletive), 160, 192 
meat and drink to me, 157 
mechanical (= vulgar), 175 
Mephostophilus, 151 
Michaelmas, 156 
middle-earth, 204 
mill-sixpences, 153 
mince, 198 

minim's rest, at a, 158 
Mistress, 149 
Mockwater, 177 
montant, 176 
morning's draught, 173 
motion (verb), 149 
motions (= proposals), 

156 
mum budget, 199 
muse, 208 

musket(= hawk) , 183 
mussel-shell, 196 
mynheers, 169 

nay-word, 172, 198 
nut-hook, 154 

obsequious, 191 

'od's heartlings, 187 

'od's nouns, 177, 190 

oeillades, 160 

o'erlooked, 204 

of all loves, 172 

of great admittance, 174 

of the season, 185 

old (intensive), 162 

once to-night, 187 

open (= bark) , 193 

opportunity, 186 

orphan heirs of destiny, 

200 
other her defences, 175 
ouphes, 194 



Index of Words and Phrases 221 



paid (play upon), 196 

Pandarus, 161 

parcel (=part), 156 

pass the career, 154 

passed, 157, 192 

passes (in fencing) , 169 

pauca, pauca, 151 

peaking, 189 

peer out, peer out ! 191 

peevish (= silly), 162 

pensioners, 172 

period, 193 

perpend, 167 

phlegmatic, 163 

Pickt-hatch, 170 

pinnace, 161 

pipe-wine, 182 

pistols (anachronism), 
191 

pitty-ward, 177 

plucked geese, 198 

posset, 162, 188, 206 

possibilities, 150 

potatoes (= sweet pota- 
toes), 199 

pottle, 169, 188 

predominate, 175 

preeches, 191 

preparations, 174 

present (= represent), 197 

press (play upon), 166 

pribbles and prabbles, 149 

primero, 197 

properties, 195 

property, 186 

puddings (= entrails), 165 

pumpion, 183 

punk, 172 

punto, 176 

putting down of men, 165 

py'r lady, 149 

quaint, 198 

quality (= profession) , 201 
quarter (in heraldry), 148 
quick (= living), 187 

raise up the organs of her 

fantasy, 203 
ratolorum, 148 
red-lattice phrases, 171 
reverse (in fencing), 176 
Ringwood, 167 
ronyon, 193 
rushling, 172 



sack, 165 

sack-posset, 189 

Sackerson, 157 

sad (= serious), 190 

salt-butter (adjective), 175 

scall, 180 

scaped, 164 

Scarlet and John, 154 

scut, 199 

several (= separate), 189, 

204 
shent, 163 
ship-tire, 183 
short knife and a throng, 

170 
shovel-boards, 153 
shrewd (= evil) , 174 
simple of itself, 188 
simple though I stand 

here, 156 
Sir (priestly title), 147 
Sir Alice Ford, 165 
sit at ten pounds a week, 
.158 
sith, 173 

slack (= neglect), 187 
slice (verb ?), 151 
'slid, 186 
slighted, 188 
slough, 196 
societies, 186 
softly-sprighted, 163 
soon at night, 162, 175 
so-seeming, 181 
sot (=fool), 180 
speak small, 149 
speaks holiday, 181 
sped, 189 
spirit (monosyllable), 163, 

194 
sprag, 191 
stale (= urine), 176 
stamps (= coins), 186 
stand (in hunting), 207 
standing-bed, 195 
Star-chamber matter, 148 
stoccado (in fencing), 169 
strain (= impulse), 166, 

185 . 
style (in heraldry), 175 
sufferance, 191 
swinged, 206 

take all, pay all, 172 
takes (= bewitches) , 194 
tall (= stout) , 163 



tall man of his hands, 163 
tester, 162 

that (=so that), 189 
thick-skin, 195 
thorough, 196 
throughly, 164 
thrummed hat, 192 
tightly (= adroitly), 161 
tike, 196 
tire-valiant, 183 
to (= for) , 184 
to-night (= last night) , 

i8s 
to-pinch, 195 
too-too, 175 
took 't upon mine honour, 

170 
toys (= trifles) , 201 
trail, 193 
traitor, 183 
traverse, 176 
trial-fire, 204 
tricking, 195 
trow, 164 
truckle-bed, 195 
turn him to pain, 204 
turtles (= doves) , 166, 

183 
twelve score, 181 

uncape, 185 
unduteous title, 206 
unraked, 201 
unseasoned, 173 
unweighed, 165 
urchins (= elves), 194 
Urinal, 176 

vagram, 180 

Venetian admittance, 183 

veney, 156 

via, 173 

vizaments, 149 

vizards, 195 

vlouting-stog, 180 

ward (in fencing), 175 

warrener, 163 

wash myself of the buck, 

185 
waste (play upon), 159 
watched you, 205 
were best, you, 185 
whenas, 180 
whiting-time, 184 



221 Index of Words and Phrases 



whitsters, 182 

wide of his own respect, 

180 
wink (=shut the eyes), 

203 
wise worfian (= witch) , 

196 
with (=by), 190 



with cold (= of coldness) , 

wutol-cuckold, 175, 176 

wittolly, 175 

woodman (= hunter), 199 

worts, 150 

wot, 172 

would (=wouldst), 171 



write me, 160 

Yead, 153 

yearn (= grieve), 189 
yellowness, 162 
yokes, 205 

young ravens must have 
food, 159 



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